Europe's flood part of global deluge

In the Czech Republic, the floods are being described as the worst in more than a century. Hundreds of towns and villages have been swamped by heavy rains and raging rivers, and a state of emergency has been declared. Bridges have been ripped from their foundations; roads and rail lines submerged; and wooden cabins, cars, and furniture swept away. The Czech government reports hundreds of millions of dollars in damage in central and southern areas.

About 50,000 people have been evacuated from the capital, Prague, and many thousands more have been made homeless in outlying towns.

In the Karlin district, next to the Old Town, up to 9 feet of water swept away the sandbags. Through the windows of one building, papers and coffee cups could be seen on a table, laundry still hanging on a line.

Some of the most valuable historical architecture in Europe has been swamped with several meters of water and mud, despite barricades built by thousands of firemen and volunteers. The 16th-century Charles Bridge, which still peaks above the once-lazy Vltava, is in danger of collapsing. A plaque outside the Lavka Restaurant at the end of the bridge is engraved with the line where the river peaked in 1890, in the worst flood on record. Now, that plaque is under water.

While the river has slowed its rise, heavy winds have begun gusting over the capital, raising fears of a storm surge that could push water through barricades and over a flood wall protecting the Old Town.

As the waters of the Vltava River rise, Petr Perina pumps furiously.

"The fireman can't help us because there are simply not enough of them," says the computer programmer, helping a neighbor siphon water out of a basement on Benediska Street in the Old Town. "Now each of us has to help himself." But there is nowhere for the pumped water to go, and the street outside is slowly being submerged.

Honza Kubes watches with his baby daughter from a hill above his home in the Prague district of Holesovice, which is almost completely submerged.

"We were evacuated yesterday and we can't go back," he says. "I can't imagine what we are going to do or if life will ever go back to normal. When I was a boy, we never had floods like this," he says, rubbing his face with trembling hands.

Flood-fighting volunteer Vojtech Brdicka, working at a sandbag barrier in Prague's Old Town Square, worries about his grandmother. "The district where my grandmother lives is already under water and I haven't been able to contact her," he says. He also echoes the concerns being voiced here about a possible link between the flooding and global warming. "If humanity doesn't pay attention, we will be destroyed," he says.

The charming Czech spa town of Trebon to the south could be washed off the map. Since the 17th century, the town has nestled under a dike holding back the 500-acre World Pond. Now the dike is beginning to give way.

"This is a terrifying,," says fireman Martin Fucik, resting briefly between rescue efforts. "This flood is unnatural. We have had floods every year for the past eight years. That was bad, but it was nothing compared to this."

After going out to evacuate residents from flooded homes, Mr. Fucik and his crew returned to find their own station under water.

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