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PM pledges help amid flood risk in southern Poland

PR dla Zagranicy
Grzegorz Siwicki 23.05.2019 13:45
Poland’s prime minister on Thursday pledged support for people hit by heavy rains, extreme weather and flooding in the south of the country.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki briefs reporters amid a flood emergency in southern Poland on Thursday. Photo: PAP/Łukasz GągulskiPrime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki briefs reporters amid a flood emergency in southern Poland on Thursday. Photo: PAP/Łukasz Gągulski

“We are monitoring the flood risk on an ongoing basis,” Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said during a crisis management meeting in the southern city of Kraków. “We want to help all the people on the spot.”

He added: "Let's hope, let's pray for the rain to stop.”

Morawiecki asked his Interior and Administration Minister Joachim Brudziński to go down to affected areas in the country’s southern Silesia region and oversee emergency services in person as they battled with rising water levels in rivers.

Brudziński was among senior government officials who took part in the crisis management meeting in Kraków, alongside Deputy Prime Minister Beata Szydło and Infrastructure Minister Andrzej Adamczyk.

The prime minister thanked all emergency services, including firefighters, soldiers and the country’s Territorial Defence Force, for bringing relief efforts to areas affected by flooding this week.

The Government Centre for Security (RCB) on Wednesday evening sent out text messages alerting people in several southern provinces over intense rainfall and possible storms causing a risk of local flooding and power outages.

By Thursday morning rivers had crossed alert levels in 21 sites in Poland’s southern Śląskie, Małopolskie, Podkarpackie and Dolnośląskie provinces, while exceeding warning levels in 86 places, a spokesman for the State Fire Service told public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency.

On Tuesday and Wednesday alone, firefighters were called out more than 3,000 times to deal with the aftermath of strong winds and intense rainfall in Poland’s southern regions, the spokesman, Paweł Frątczak, said.

He added that almost 1,100 buildings had been flooded as a result of heavy rainfall nationwide, and that 49 people had been evacuated from residential areas, chiefly in the south.

Earlier this week, government officials led by Morawiecki promised help after what appeared to be a tornado destroyed more than 80 buildings, including 26 residential ones, in the village of Stasin near the eastern city of Lublin.

(gs/pk)

Source: IAR, PAP, TVP Info

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