Czech towns warned about floods late (České noviny)

Information on the Czech flash floods in June was not provided to municipalities quickly enough, the daily Hospodarske noviny writes today, citing a report that the Central Flood Commission submitted to the government.

People need more time to save their property, the commission concluded.

"The meteorologic server collapsed due to too many visitors in critical moments," Environment Minister Ladislav Miko who heads the commission told the paper.

The warning system needs to be updated and more experts are to work with it, the commission says. It recommends that 11 million crowns be invested in the system.

In total, the state is to pay 30 million crowns to remove the mistakes occurring during the floods, for example, to link the systems of meteorologists and firefighters, the paper writes.

The report says similar flooding can be expected more frequently due to climate change.

It praises the cooperation between rescuers and municipalities, the paper writes.

People in northern Moravia used their experience with the floods from 1997, but mayors from the Novy Jicin area jointly say the current flood came unexpectedly.

Jesenik nad Odrou Mayor Tomas Machycek said the hydrometeorologic reports that he received by e-mail shortly before the flood included no warning.

Jesenik, north Moravia, is one of the municipalities where the flooding was the most devastating.

However, experts say it is difficult to predict flash floods.

"It is possible to do so about two hours in advance, but sometimes only 15 minutes," Lukas Kubenka from Meteopress told the paper.

Kubenka recalls that several storms united and did not move and it rained heavily in the Novy Jicin area.

The floods that hit the Czech Republic in late June and claimed 14 lives have been the third most tragic flooding in the country's modern history. The situation was worse only in 1997 and 2002.

According to estimates, the recent flooding caused damage worth 5-6 billion crowns. Most of the repair costs will be paid by the state, which will probably increase the budget deficit by billions of crowns.

Finance Minister Eduard Janota said the Czech Republic could next month gain three to four billion crowns from the sale of state bonds to the European Investment Bank (EIB).

ČTK, České noviny, 24. 7. 2009, 9:22, News in English