Cities in Central Europe reinforce riverbanks ahead of more flooding

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Soldiers and firefighters used sandbags to reinforce river embankments and delivered food and drinking water to cut-off communities as the worst flooding in years moved Tuesday across a broad swath of Central Europe, taking lives and destroying homes.

Heavy flooding has affected a large part of the region in recent days, including the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Austria. Around 20 deaths were reported in the flooding, which followed heavy rainfall but the full human cost was still not clear. Casualties have been reported in Romania, Austria, the Czech Republic and Poland.

In some areas, the waters were receding, leaving behind mounds of debris. As reports of looting came in, government and military authorities vowed to crack down on perpetrators. Gen. Wiesław Kukuła, Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Army, said the military was deploying soldiers equipped with night vision and thermal imaging devices to support the police in areas where people had to leave for higher ground.

“Looters, night and lack of electricity will no longer be your ally,” he tweeted late Monday.

Other places braced for the worst yet to come, including two Central European gems: Budapest, the Hungarian capital on the Danube River, and Wroclaw, a city in southwestern Poland on the Oder River which boasts a Gothic cathedral and other historic landmarks.

Hungary deployed soldiers to reinforce barriers along the Danube as thousands of volunteers filled sandbags in dozens of riverside settlements.

In Budapest, authorities closed the lower quays, which were expected to be breached by rising waters. The lower half of the city’s iconic Margaret Island was also closed.

In Wroclaw, firefighters and soldiers worked through the night to reinforce river embankments with sandbags. The city zoo, located on the Oder, appealed for volunteers to fill sandbags on Tuesday morning.

“We and our animals will be extremely grateful for your help,” the zoo said.

The city said it expected the flood wave to peak there around Friday, though some had predicted that would happen sooner. Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk met with a crisis team early Tuesday and said there are contradictory forecasts from meteorologists.

Tusk's government has declared a state of natural disaster across southern Poland.

To the south of Wroclaw, residents spent the night fighting to save Nysa, a town of 44,000 people, after the Nysa Klodzka River broke its banks the day before. Mayor Kordian Kolbiarz said 2,000 “women, men, children, the elderly” came out to try to save their town from the rising waters, forming a human chain that passed sandbags to the river bank.

“We simply … did everything we could," Kolbiarz wrote on Facebook. "This chain of people fighting for our Nysa was incredible. Thank you. We fought for Nysa. Our home. Our families. Our future.”

Later on Tuesday, authorities in Nysa said the city center had been saved from the flooding.

In Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, the deputy mayor for the environment, Jakub Mrva, said the level of the Danube had peaked and would slowly decrease. He said that mobile barriers had saved the historic center, but that there was still damage, including to tram lines.

“We also observed major damage at the zoo, which is flooded, and there is relatively high damage in the city forests of Bratislava, where many trees have perished,” Mrva told The Associated Press in an interview, speaking next to the flooded banks of the Danube.

In the Czech Republic, waters have been receding in the two hardest-hit northeast regions. The government approved the deployment of 2,000 troops to help with clean-up efforts. The damage is expected to reach billions of euros.

The Czech government also scrambled to help local authorities organize regional elections on Friday and Saturday as several schools and other buildings serving as polling stations were badly damaged. However, a planned evacuation of some 1,000 in the town of Veseli nad Luznici could be postponed as the waters had not reached critical levels so far.

Associated Press journalists Justin Spike in Budapest, Hungary, Karel Janicek in Prague, and Tomas Hrivnak in Bratislava, Slovakia, contributed to this report.

An aerial view of a flooded neighbourhood in Bohumin, Czech Republic, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

An aerial picture taken with a drone shows the flooded resort village of Venek and the swollen Danube River near Gyor, Hungary, Tuesday, September 17, 2024. (Gergely Janossy/MTI via AP)

An aerial picture taken with a drone shows the flooded resort village of Venek and the swollen Danube River near Gyor, Hungary, Tuesday, September 17, 2024. (Gergely Janossy/MTI via AP)

A man riding a bicycle is reflected in water infiltrated through anti-flood barriers on the banks of the River Danube, in Bratislava, Slovakia, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Tomas Hrivnak)

Geese stand on an outdoor table in a flooded neighbourhood in Ostrava, Czech Republic, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

A view of flooded sports club in Plav, Czech Republic, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Stanislav Hodina)

Zuzana Kublova's family home is flooded, in Bohumin, Czech Republic, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

People take photos of rising waters on the banks of the River Danube, in Bratislava, Slovakia, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Tomas Hrivnak)

Zuzana Kublova wades through her flooded family home, in Bohumin, Czech Republic, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

Residents paddle through a flooded street in Bohumin, Czech Republic, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

An aerial picture taken with a drone shows the flooded resort village of Venek and the swollen Danube River near Gyor, Hungary, Tuesday, September 17, 2024. (Gergely Janossy/MTI via AP)

Soldiers who help strengthen the embankments and to prevent floodings walk by sandbags near the city of Wroclaw, southwestern Poland, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Krzysztof Zatycki)

This handout photo provided by the Polish fire department, shows firefighters removing piles of debris dumped in the streets by high flood wave that is passing through southwestern Poland, in Glucholazy, Poland, on Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. ( Marcin Muskala/KG PSP via AP)

This handout photo provided by the Polish fire department, shows firefighters removing piles of debris dumped in the streets by high flood wave that is passing through southwestern Poland, in Glucholazy, Poland, on Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. ( Marcin Muskala/KG PSP via AP)

This handout photo provided by the Polish fire department, shows firefighters removing piles of debris dumped in the streets by high flood wave that is passing through southwestern Poland, in Glucholazy, Poland, on Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. ( Marcin Muskala/KG PSP via AP)

This handout photo provided by the Polish fire department, shows firefighters removing piles of debris dumped in the streets by high flood wave that is passing through southwestern Poland, in Glucholazy, Poland, on Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. ( Marcin Muskala/KG PSP via AP)

Firemen deliver aid to residents whose homes are flooded in Bohumin, Czech Republic, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

Soldiers fill and arrange sandbags to help strengthen the embankments and to prevent flooding near the city of Wroclaw, southwestern Poland, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Krzysztof Zatycki)

This handout photo provided by the Polish fire department, shows firefighters removing piles of debris dumped in the streets by high flood wave that is passing through southwestern Poland, in Glucholazy, Poland, on Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. ( Marcin Muskala/KG PSP via AP)

A cyclist pushes his bicycle through a flooded street in Bohumin, Czech Republic, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

Residents paddle through a flooded street in Bohumin, Czech Republic, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

A resident carries his bicycle as others paddle through a flooded street in Bohumin, Czech Republic, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

A resident paddles through a flooded street in Bohumin, Czech Republic, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

Residents use sandbags to strengthen the embankment of the Oder River on its way to Wroclaw, southwestern Poland, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Krzysztof Zatycki)

View of the Bratislava castle as the water level of the Danube river rises during recent floods in Slovakia, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Tomas Hrivnak)

This handout photo provided by the Polish fire department, shows a flooded area near the Nysa Klodzka river in Nysa, Poland on Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (KG PSP Photo via AP)

The Elbe floods against the backdrop of the old town at dawn Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in Saxony, Dresden, Germany. (Sebastian Kahnert/dpa via AP)

People fill sandbags to reinforce the dam due to the flooding of the Danube river at Tahitotfalu, Hungary, on Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)

A fireman and residents look at flooding waters in Ostrava, Czech Republic, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

Vehicles are partially covered by water during floods in Ostrava, Czech Republic, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

An aerial view of a flooded neighbourhood in Ostrava, Czech Republic, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

This handout photo provided by the Polish fire department, shows a flooded area near the Nysa Klodzka river in Nysa, Poland on Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (KG PSP Photo via AP)

This handout photo provided by the Polish fire department, shows a flooded area near the Nysa Klodzka river in Nysa, Poland on Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (KG PSP Photo via AP)

Florida residents began repairing damage from Hurricane Milton, which smashed through coastal communities and tore homes to pieces, flooded streets and spawned a deadly tornadoes.

At least nine people are dead, but many expressed relief that Milton wasn’t worse.

Follow AP’s coverage of tropical weather at https://apnews.com/hub/hurricanes.

Here’s the latest:

President Joe Biden said ahead of a Friday briefing about hurricane damage that estimates are that Hurricane Milton alone caused $50 billion of damage. He also said his predecessor, former President Donald Trump, is “just the biggest mouth” for disinformation about the government’s response.

The president added that the disinformation is a “permanent state of being for some extreme people,” but that he belives the country as a whole wants facts and bipartisan cooperation to address natural disasters.

An apartment complex in Clearwater was evacuated early Thursday when water from a canal started rising.

Residents were gathered in a shopping center parking lot as crews worked to clear the property Friday.

Jared Lynch, 32, said he was at home on his first floor apartment when the water started to rise Wednesday night.

“It wasn’t that bad at 10 o’clock, but that’s when it started rising,” he said, adding that by 2 a.m., the water was up to his doorknobs. That’s when he left.

“There were literally people walking through the water with baskets on their heads. It was the craziest thing I’ve ever seen,” Lynch said.

But Deanne Criswell says FEMA will need additional funding at some point.

Criswell says the agency is keeping account every day of how much they’re drawing from the disaster assistance fund. That’s a pot of money allocated specifically to help the agency respond to emergencies across the country.

The fund gets replenished every year by Congress and is used to pay for recovery from hurricanes, floods, earthquakes and other disasters.

Congress recently replenished the fund with $20 billion — the same amount FEMA got last year. About $8 billion of that is set aside for recovery from previous storms and mitigation projects.

Criswell says the fund won’t have enough money to last through the entire fiscal year, which stretches to September of next year. She says at some point, they’ll have to go back to Congress to ask for a boost to the disaster relief fund.

“We will need one. It’s just a matter of when,” she said.

Mayor Lynne Matthews spoke at a news conference Friday with FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell and the city’s manager, Gregory B. Murray.

Matthews says 121 people had to be rescued after Hurricane Helene made landfall Sept. 26 but rescuers only had to save three people after Milton came through.

“So people listened to the evacuation order,” Matthews said.

“I know we had teams out with the megaphones going through all of our mobile home communities and other places to let people know that they needed to evacuate,” she said.

Bruce Kinsler, 68, was part of a Polk County “push crew” that began clearing roads before 6 a.m. on Thursday. A truck struck Kinsler as he and a coworker were trying to clear a tree that had fallen across the road as the storm passed through the area. The driver of the truck was a county employee who was arriving to join Kinsler for post-storm recovery work.

“The tragedy of this incident is compounded by the fact that Bruce Kinsler was killed serving the residents of this county,” said Bill Braswell, chairman of the Polk County Commission. “We ask a lot of the employees as public servants, and they respond to the call. For this to happen is just a tragedy.”

The White House announced Biden’s visit but did not detail exactly where the president will travel.

Biden was scheduled to be briefed by aides Friday afternoon on the federal response and recovery in the aftermath of Hurricanes Milton and Helene. He’ll then deliver remarks from the White House to update the public about those efforts.

One of those Friday was a large pig stuck in high water at a strip mall in Lithia, FLorida, which is east of Tampa. Cindy Evers led the rescue of the pig and she’s also saved a donkey and several goats.

The animals are being taken to Evers’ farm for the time being.

“I’m high and dry where I’m at and I have a barn and nine acres,” she said. “So we have plenty of room for these animals to be safe.” Evers said she’ll figure out next steps later, such as finding the animals' owners.

Gov. DeSantis noted interactions with downed power lines and water.

“We are seeing hazards that are still there,” he said. He said people should take care around standing water and should use generators properly.

“You have to make the proper decisions and know that there are hazards out there,” he said.

Human-caused climate change intensified deadly Hurricane Milton ’s rainfall by 20 to 30% and strengthened its winds by about 10%, scientists said in a new flash study. The analysis comes just two weeks after Hurricane Helene devastated the southeastern United States, a storm also fueled by climate change.

World Weather Attribution researchers said Friday that without climate change, a hurricane like Milton would make landfall as a weaker Category 2, not considered a “major” storm, instead of a Category 3.

WWA’s rapid studies aren’t peer-reviewed but use peer-reviewed methods. The WWA compares a weather event with what might have been expected in a world that hasn’t warmed about 1.3 degree Celsius since pre-industrial times.

▶ Read more about how climate change affected Milton.

Only authorized personnel are allowed on the bases. There was damage and flooding at MacDill, which is home to U.S. Central Command and Special Operations Command.

There's no significant damage at Patrick and teams are working to restore critical infrastructure, according to the Air Force.

The river is 25 miles (40 kilometers) long and runs from eastern Hillsborough County, east of Tampa, into Tampa Bay.

The sheriff’s office asked people to call 911 if they need help getting out of their homes.

A pair of unwelcome and destructive guests named Helene and Milton have stormed their way into this year’s presidential election.

The back-to-back hurricanes have jumbled the schedules of Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump, both of whom devoted part of their Thursdays to tackling questions about the storm recovery effort.

The two hurricanes are forcing basic questions about who as president would best respond to deadly natural disasters, a once-overlooked issue that has become an increasingly routine part of the job. And just weeks before the Nov. 5 election, the storms have disrupted the mechanics of voting in several key counties.

A pick up drives past a guard gate on a flooded street in Siesta Key, Fla., following the passage Hurricane Milton, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

FILE - People are rescued from an apartment complex after flooding in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton, Oct. 10, 2024, in Clearwater, Fla. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart, File)

FILE - A house sits toppled off its stilts after the passage of Hurricane Milton, alongside an empty lot where a home was swept away by Hurricane Helene, in Bradenton Beach on Anna Maria Island, Fla., Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)