2024-09-16 11:07 update: 2024-09-16, 14:38
Photo: PAP/Marcin Obara
Polish Minister of National Defense Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz has said on Monday that the army evacuated 2,600 people from flooded regions over the past 24 hours.
In his post on the X platform, he also expressed gratitude to the soldiers, fire fighters and police officers involved.
"The Polish armed forces are everywhere where support is needed," he wrote. "The army is securing embankments, helping to evacuate people and conducting work in areas where the waters are receding, including preparing to restore bridges and supplying the most necessary items, with the help of military engineers and heavy equipment," he added.
Southwestern Poland has been flooded, with the most dramatic situation in the Dolny Slask and Opolskie regions.
A dam in the city of Stronie Slaskie has been breached by floodwaters and a temporary bridge in Glucholazy has been also destroyed. Stronie Slaskie and Ladek Zdroj have been practically cut off from the world. The city of Klodzko is under water, with floodwaters 1.5 metres deep in some places. A hospital in Nysa had to evacuate its 33 patients, including pregnant women and children.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk arrived to meet the local crisis management teams on Saturday and Sunday. The ministers of interior, national defence, infrastructure and climate also visited the flooded areas.
The government has called a special meeting for Monday, and on Sunday Tusk announced that he had ordered the government to prepare an ordinance to declare a state of natural disaster. (PAP)
wpb/jch
