A MARTĂŤNEZ, HOST:
Several Central European countries are flooding after heavy rainfall. That's led to 16 deaths and tens of thousands of evacuations. NPR Central Europe correspondent Rob Schmitz reports. And just a heads-up - his piece starts with a siren.
(SOUNDBITE OF SIREN WAILING)
ROB SCHMITZ, BYLINE: A siren warns residents of the Austrian town of Sankt Polten to seek higher ground. The town, west of the capital of Vienna, has received more rain in the past four days than the whole of its wettest autumn on record nearly 75 years ago.
(SOUNDBITE OF PRESS CONFERENCE)
GEORG SCHRODER: (Speaking German).
SCHMITZ: The town's fire chief, Georg Schroder, told local news he had never seen such destruction since he started on the force in 1977. A weather system known as Storm Boris has ravaged parts of Austria, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland and Romania. Cold air from the Arctic has collided with warm air from the Mediterranean, stalling over the region as it dumped record rainfall, causing floods and widespread destruction - the latest example of what scientists say stems from a warmer atmosphere holding more moisture and intense rainfall. And for every degree Celsius that the global average temperature rises, say scientists, the atmosphere holds 7% more moisture.
(SOUNDBITE OF RESIDENTS WADING THROUGH FLOODWATER)
SCHMITZ: In the southern Polish city of Opole, residents flee their homes, wading through waist-deep water along flooded streets.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRIME MINISTER DONALD TUSK: (Speaking Polish).
SCHMITZ: Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has declared a state of emergency, and the mayor of the Polish city of Nysa has asked all its 44,000 residents to evacuate. The highest rainfall totals have been in the neighboring Czech Republic, where the town of Jesenik has received 19 inches of rain in less than a week. Weather is forecasted to improve in the region, but it may take days for the floodwaters to recede. And cities downstream, like Budapest and Bratislava, remain under threat from rising waters along the Danube River.
Rob Schmitz, NPR News, Berlin. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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