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Awesome photo: Ring of fire in the sky: Storm clouds form an astonishing circle at sunset in Hungary
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Ring of fire in the sky: Storm clouds form an astonishing circle at sunset in Hungary
[link to www.dailymail.co.uk]
A circle of clouds forms a ring of fire above the Hungarian countryside as the sun sets after a day of torrential rain and hail storms which brought havoc to the country and much of central Europe.
This dramatic picture was taken after more than 2,000 people were forced from their homes in northern Hungary as flash floods triggered by heavy weekend rains blocked off villages and cut power in parts of the country.
Unusually bad weather, with heavy gusts of wind and two months' worth of rain in some areas, sent water levels surging to record highs on smaller rivers.
'It's hard to predict when the situation will normalise because of the weather, we have not seen such floods in the valleys of the rivers Sajo and Hernad since 1974,' said Csaba Csont, a spokesman for the water management authority in northern Hungary.
In Hungary's third-biggest city of Miskolc in the northeast, the mayor imposed emergency tap water restrictions and residents were building makeshift dams using logs, rocks and debris.
One man was killed in Miskolc on Sunday when an earth wall collapsed over a house.
Poland has suffered the worst of the flooding in central Europe over the past 10 days. Rivers also have burst their banks and inundated low-lying houses and farmland in parts of Serbia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
The Polish government urged caution yesterday as residents returned to their homes while heavy flooding that has left 15 people dead moved to the north of the country and toward Germany.
Interior Minister Jerzy Miller said rescuers were working to pump water from flooded houses in southern Poland, where the rain-swollen Vistula River submerged villages last week. In southeastern Poland, they were aided by 30 rescuers from neighboring Ukraine.
Poland has asked for assistance from its European Union partners as well, seeking 36 water and sediment pumps to dry flooded houses and terrain.
Miller called for caution as residents returned to their homes because flood waters may have strained buildings.
Tetanus vaccines were given to residents who had close contact with the flood waters.
Miller said the situation in the south is under control as hundreds of rescuers strengthen the dikes along the Vistula, Warta and Oder rivers where the flood wave is moving toward the Baltic Sea. Meteorologists are forecasting more rain in the south and west of Poland, although it should not worsen the situation.
Miller said that situation on Warta and Oder, where the highest level has lingered for only 48 hours, is less critical than that on the Vistula, where the peak wave has taken more than four days to recede, soaking and weakening the dikes.
In Slubice, on the border with Germany, a low lying hospital was evacuated as a precaution against the rising Oder, which demarcates the border with Poland.
Authorities in Germany are bracing for high waters to hit the northeast of the country later this week.
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