2009 European floods

[2] Those same floodwaters from the Czech Republic also affected Germany, with Dresden being hit by its worst flooding for over a century and three thousand people evacuated from areas where water was said to be waist-deep.

Quinton Low[8] ensured strong rainfall in the Eastern Alps, the southern Carpathians, and from the middle of the Balkan Peninsula to the Crimea and Baltic Sea regions between 20 and 30 June.

[12][13] Its front system, which was occluded from the east and then was guided to the northeast towards Central Europe, drove from 22 to 24 June[14][15][16][17] from the Lower Inn Valley to the Vienna Basin with heavy precipitation of over 100mm/48h, with 207mm/48h in Lunz am See.

However, the air mass over Central and Eastern Europe remained extremely moist and unstable such that heavy thunderstorms repeatedly drove further local floods in the following days.

In Styria, in which about 400 landslides were recorded since the beginning of the storm, the situation calmed a bit as the day turned to evening.

[28] On the night of 30 June the Alpine railway station was flooded for the second time in the span of a few days[33] after the strongest-ever measured rainfall in St. Pölten.

Europaplatz and Schießstadtring in St. Pölten had to be closed off; a 7m-wide stream had carved itself out leading from the Alpine Railway Station to the center of the city.

[41] A further danger existed at the EVN Group substation as the water level had almost brought power production to a halt.

[39] Additional problems arose due to the rise of the groundwater level associated with the flooding, which also reached a historical peak.

[53] 311,000 relief hours were worked by firefighters and disaster assistance services in the largest federal state Lower Austria alone.

[55] The fact that at the beginning of August in Lower Austria alone twelve streets and three railways were obstructed shows how extensive the infrastructure damage was.

[56] In the Czech Republic, persistent heavy rainfall beginning on 22 June led to the rise of smaller Vltavan tributaries in the Bohemian Forest and the Nové Hrady Mountains.

The Vsetínská Bečva also swelled and several streets were flooded in Vsetín, Valašské Meziříčí, and Rožnov pod Radhoštěm.

In the span of two hours on 24 June, strong rainfall brought flash floods with up to 80L/m2 of rain at the streams Jičínka and Zrzávka.

In Jeseník nad Odrou, the brook Luha rose to 2m in the span of a half-hour; four people died in that community, three by drowning.

People also died in Nový Jičín, Bernartice nad Odrou, Životice u Nového Jičína, and Kunín.

The floods also created extensive damage in districts of Nový Jičín such as Bludovice, Žilina, Hodslavice, and Mořkov.

[58] On 6 July sudden thunderstorms hit Ústí nad Labem Region, where a state of emergency had to be called in some places.

[62] Hepatitis vaccinations were commenced for children in severely affected areas in order to prevent an outbreak of the disease.

The Environmental Minister Ladislav Miko confirmed that the meteorological internet server broke down at a critical time.

Due to the temporary expansion of flood protection and because the high water level did not persist, there was no expected risk.

The Hungarian Western Railway still had to close down operation between Szentgotthárd and Jennersdorf because the rails were undermined in numerous places.

On 26 June a cautious all-clear was announced for the Danube between Esztergom and Budapest because the water levels remained lower than had been feared.

After strong rain fell in the Owl Mountains (at the rate of 60mm/h in Walim, for example), flood warnings were called for the Piława at Mościsko (Faulbrück) and the Bystrzyca Świdnicka at Lubachów (Breitenhain).

[73] Flood warnings were issued for parts of Northwest and far West Slovakia on 24 June[74] and extended to the Danubian Lowland on the 25th.

[80] On the 29th, Kežmarok, Spišská Belá, Ľubica, Stará Bystrica, and Radôstka were affected by landslides and flooding and there were additional storms in Senica and Skalica.

Hundreds of people climbed onto rooftops, and many desperate motorists struggled to escape their vehicles and run to safety.

On the night of 23 July a storm front moved from Germany into Austria, the Czech Republic, and Poland that arose due to previously prevalent unusually high temperatures.

[86] The Austrian hail insurance companies also faced the largest single event in the last 60 years from a cost of damages perspective.

[87] On 25 July the emergency personnel of firefighters and the Armed Forces was still engaged in partially repairing an estimated 500 destroyed houses in the Flachgau Region in order to achieve renewed rainfall resistance.

Flash flood in Nový Jičín on 25 June 2009, the morning after
Flood in Kłodzko