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As waters slowly recede from the flooded areas around Bohemia, professionals and volunteers intensify the relief efforts. Non-profit organizations around the country have been working hard all week, collecting material and financial aid, and offering invaluable help with clean-up to the thousands of people who returned to flooded homes.

All three of Prague’s underground rail lines are now working again, after the metro’s operators shut down the system earlier in the week for fear of flooding. However, trains are not stopping at nine stations, which remain closed. The entire system should be functioning as normal from Monday. Following catastrophic floods in 2002, in which more than a dozen stations were inundated, it took four months for the metro to return to normal.

The Czech Radio Foundation has set up a special bank account, entitled Help with Us, where members of the public can contribute to those hardest hit by flooding this week. The number of the Czech bank account, which is up and running, is 888 444 666/0300.

Local authorities in the Czech Republic have been told to keep flood defences in place as more rain is expected in the coming days. The order comes six days after a wave of flooding began in the country. Some people who were evacuated earlier in the week are returning to their homes, while many municipalities have begun cleanup operations and assessing the cost of the damage. However, thousands of people remain without electricity and states of alert are still in force in around a dozen places in Bohemia. Meanwhile, the number of deaths related to the floods has risen to 10.

Prague Zoo is to build a new gorilla enclosure at a higher altitude than the current one. Zoo officials reached agreement on the project with the acting mayor of Prague, Tomáš Hudeček, on Friday. Over 1,000 animals were moved from the lower part of the zoo ahead of floods this week. It was devastated by a deluge in 2002 that saw more than 100 animals die. The damage caused this week has been put at CZK 100 million, down from a previous estimate of CZK 160 million.

Prague’s Museum Night, which was scheduled to take place on Saturday, has been postponed because of the recent flood situation. The event, in which museums and some galleries stay open late and offer free admission, is likely to now be held in September. The Respect festival of world music, which takes place on June 15 and 16, has been moved from its usual venue on Štvanice Island to Prague’s Ladronka. And a benefit concert for the devastated Jazz Dock club has been organised for Tuesday at Lucerna Music Bar.

In Business News this week: flood damages estimated between 10 and 20 billion; insurers to pay over 7.5 billion in flood compensation; government to offer tax breaks to inundated businesses; Czech economy in deep recession while household spending up; and car sales down by 13 percent between January and May.

Prime Minister Petr Nečas said on Thursday that the government will take a number of steps to help business owners affected by the floods recover their livelihoods. The June 15 deadline for back payments of income taxes has been postponed and owners of businesses damaged by the floods will be freed of the obligation to make advance tax payments for 2013 starting June 30. The premier told the daily Hospodařské noviny that next week the cabinet wants to introduce special low-interest bank loans guaranteed by the government to help with repairs and recovery of small businesses.

Most rivers that had swollen and flooded many parts of Bohemia in the past week are slowly beginning to recede. This week’s floods claimed eight lives and forced some 19,000 people to leave their homes. Some 31 thousand people around the country lost access to drinking water in their places of residence in the past four days, and many are still without power.

The Labe River reached its peak flow levels in the north Bohemian towns of Děčín and Ústí nad Labem on Wednesday night and began to slow down in the early hours of the morning. Areas surrounding the riverfront in both towns have been flooded since Wednesday morning, as water made it over floodwalls. In Ústí nad Labem, more than 3,000 people had to leave their homes, and in Děčín over 1,000 due to the inundation. The authorities expect the Labe to return to normal levels within the next week.

The A and the B lines of the Prague metro are in full operation as of Thursday morning, although trains are still not stopping at seven stations that are in the immediate vicinity of the Vltava river. The C line will reopen on Friday, though some stations on that line will remain closed as well. All underground lines had been partly closed since Monday, as a precaution against floodingthat could have resulted from the rise in the water levels of the Vltava River earlier in the week.