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Today in Mailbox: Floods in the Czech Republic and Central Europe; Prague Zoo during the flood; a replica of a Marian column to be erected in Prague; monthly listeners' quiz. Listeners/readers quoted: Jayanta Chakrabarty, Heike Strehle, Barbara M. Ziemba, Hans Verner Lollike, Valery Luhouski.

Members of the outgoing government of the Civic Democrats, TOP 09 and LIDEM met for the last time on Wednesday before a new cabinet put together by prime minister designate Jiří Rusnok is named. The new interim cabinet is not yet complete and a new environment minister and finance minister, for example, have yet to be named. The caretaker government is expected to be named next week and will have 30 days to ask for a confidence vote in the lower house.

Absent on Wednesday were Justice Minister Pavel Blažek and the deputy prime minister, Karolína Peake. On the agenda was an assessment of the overall damage caused by floods which hit the country last month as well as the release of 200 million crowns for volunteer fire fighters. In the same cabinet session, the government opted to raise the budget for science and scientific research. Next year, the sector should see an increase of 1.5 billion crowns. The current annual budget for scientific research is 26.1 billion.

Outgoing Prime Minister Petr Nečas said that EU funds should be available not only for post-flood relief efforts, but for preventive measures as well. He is planning to introduce this to the closing document of the EU summit he is attending in Brussels this week. The four Visegrad countries, together with Germany and Austria, have already added a paragraph to the document that relates to funding for clean-up and renovations after this year’s flooding, which affected all of the countries.

This year’s floods have claimed 15 lives and affected a total of 970 municipalities around the Czech Republic, according to the outgoing Environment Minister Tomáš Chapula. Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Mr. Chalupa said that towns and cities have so far used more than 750 million crowns from the Finance Ministry’s emergency fund for post-flood expenses, and 200 million more were recommended to be released for repairs. Some 50,000 police officers and fire fighters as well as 10,000 soldiers helped with the flood defense preparations and rescue efforts, having helped evacuate over 26,000 people and rescued around 600.

The recent floods put the spotlight on the country’s unsung heroes - thousands of volunteer firefighters who fought side by side with professionals to save lives and property. It is not general knowledge, but the Czech Republic has one of the densest networks of volunteer fire departments in Europe, a tradition going back 150 years.

Heavy rains have caused rivers to swell in some parts of the Czech Republic, just weeks after extensive flooding in areas of Bohemia. The Czech Hydro-Meteorological Institute said on Tuesday that flood levels had been reached on 60 stretches of river, particularly in southern and eastern Bohemia and southern Moravia. Fire officers have been called out to pump out cellars, gardens and roads in some spots. Meanwhile, the Central Floods Commission has asked the government to deploy soldiers to help with cleanup operations for longer than originally planned.

The Czech Hydro-meteorological Institute has warned that Monday to Wednesday will see heavy rainfall across the country, especially areas in the Czech-Moravian highlands. The increased rainfall could raise water levels dangerously on some rivers. High-level flood alerts are expected on the Nežárka, Malše, Sázava and Lužnice rivers. The Labe could see a mid-level warning issued. Many parts of the country were hit by floods just three weeks ago.

Twenty rock’n’roll groups will perform at a charity concert in aid of flood victims which is taking place on Friday evening at the campsite Pražačka. Fans can look forward to Lemon Nashville and His Golden Killers, Slapdash and Lazy Bones, among others. Tickets cost 100 crowns and the proceeds will go to a flood account set up by the Czech Radio Foundation.

Czech Radio has launched a campaign to help raise money for flood victims. The station has organized a VIP call centre operated by well-known radio personalities, popular singers and actors who are taking calls from donors from 5am until 6pm on Friday. The Czech Radio Foundation has set up a special bank account, entitled Help with Us, to which people can contribute money up until June 21st. The number of the Czech bank account is 888 444 666/0300. People can also donate via SMS messages sent from Czech mobile phones. The message DMS ROZHLAS should be sent to the phone number 87777. One DMS costs 30 crowns of which 27 goes in aid of flood victims, and the remaining 3 to the service operator.

Střelecký island in central Prague will be closed most likely until the end of summer, after being submerged for a number of days during the recent floods. The island was under large-scale renovation at the time of the flooding, and many of the renovated parts of the island as well as construction equipment was damaged by the water, which rose up to a meter and a half above the island’s surface. The renovation work, which was supposed to draw to a close in early June, began last October and was originally meant to cost 80 million crowns. Střelecký island is the site of many outdoor festivals throughout the year. An international music festival organized by the magazine Respect scheduled for this weekend was moved to a different location because of the damage to the island.