Floods Exact Toll in Europe, Claiming Lives and Threatening Cultural Icons

Flood waters from the heaviest rain to hit Central Europe in more than a century swept through Baroque landmarks in cities along the Danube, Vltava and Elbe rivers Wednesday, adding a cultural toll to a weeklong disaster that has already caused billions of dollars in property damage, driven hundreds of thousands from their homes and killed at least 94 people across the Continent.

Here in Dresden, the latest major city to be hit as the flooding moves northward, the Elbe River swelled to its highest level since 1890 and continued to spill into the city center. Rescue workers who had spent the previous day plucking stranded residents from rooftops spent Wednesday evacuating 4,000 Renaissance paintings to the attic of the 18th century Zwinger Palace, home to one of Germany’s most valuable art collections. Officials warned that the artworks were still at risk.

At the opulent Semper Opera, also in the flooded heart of this Saxony state capital, the valued costume collection suffered severe damage and water stood waist-high in the lobby and stairwells.

Thousands of awe-struck residents flocked to the Elbe’s bridges and elevated promenade with children and cameras in tow, taking respectful note of Mother Nature’s humbling of their surroundings. They watched as outdoor riverside restaurants drifted away in the flood waters. An outdoor movie theater erected for a film festival had become an inaccessible island.

Sirens from fire engines and ambulances wailed and helicopters buzzed overhead, but the hushed audience flanking the waters watched with a quiet fascination.

“It breaks my heart to see the city where I was born destroyed by a force we can’t control or estimate,” said Katrin Brueck, an office worker idled by the flooding. She brought her two children, decked out in rubber boots and umbrellas, to watch as workers sandbagged landmarks and as the murky brown water advanced on the historic city center.

Dresden, which was destroyed by Allied bombing during World War II and subjected to Communist neglect for the next half a century, had been painstakingly restored since Germany’s 1990 reunification.

Though the flooding afflicting Prague in the Czech Republic, Salzburg in Austria and other cities south of here was believed to have peaked Wednesday, Dresden officials said the Elbe had yet to crest and could reach greater heights today.

Klaus Jeschke, a Saxony state official, warned of a “grave prognosis” for the rivers and tributaries that flow into the Elbe. Dresden’s peak could surpass an 1845 record for the city, he added.

Huge swaths of southern and eastern Germany have joined areas of the Czech Republic, Romania, Russia and Austria that are under states of emergency and facing billions of dollars in damage.

In the Czech Republic, flood waters from the Vltava River poured over bridges and promenades in Prague’s medieval Old Town on Wednesday. Firefighters worked to prevent debris from damaging the historic Charles Bridge, as thousands of residents joined a mounting, week-old evacuation that by nightfall totaled more than 200,000 people nationwide. It was Prague’s biggest displacement since World War II.

A power outage cut electricity to the Czech capital’s famous clock tower, stopping its hands and the hourly mechanized theatrics that have charmed millions of visitors. At the Prague Zoo, the waters drowned a gorilla in its cage and forced keepers to put down an elephant and a hippopotamus they were unable to rescue. A seal escaped.

By afternoon, the rain clouds parted over most of the Czech Republic and Austria. In the Black Sea region of Russia, however, where the torrential rains began a week ago and killed 59 people before easing, the torrent was expected to resume today.

Officials warned that more casualties were likely. Yuri Tkachenko, director of the Krasnodar regional weather forecasting service, said the Russian flooding was “as if a huge lake was suddenly turned upside down.”

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder broke off campaigning for reelection and came to Dresden to assess the extent of the disaster. As he flew over the inundated architectural gems of the city’s Old Town, the Elbe spread its mud-laden mayhem downriver to Dessau, where it joined with the equally swollen Mulde, then marched toward the Saxony-Anhalt state capital, Magdeburg.

At least 700 soldiers and volunteers near Bitterfeld, about 45 miles southeast of Magdeburg, raced against the rising waters to shore up a flood barrier and prevent the Elbe from breaking through to a chemical industry complex. The site is home to 350 companies, many with inventories that could poison the river and regional water table if spilled by flooding.

Environmental activists and some scientists have been quick to blame humankind’s mistreatment of nature for the violent rainstorms lashing the Continent.

“We’ve seen a steady and measurable increase in heavy rainfall over the last 100 years,” said Mojib Latif, a climate expert at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg, where the Elbe flows out to the North Sea. He blamed the mounting intensity of the storms on global warming.

Others warn of more climate catastrophes unless industrialized and developing countries do more to rein in emissions of carbon dioxide.

“A real change won’t come until it hurts,” said Hermann Ott of the Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy in Wuppertal. “People will correct their behavior only when it costs less to hinder climate change than it does to pay for its damage.”

The toll in Dresden was already estimated at $1 billion, with reports still pending from the nearby Ore Mountain region.

“We are talking about damage in the billions” of dollars, Saxony Gov. Georg Milbradt told journalists after spending the day reviewing the disaster scene with Schroeder. “There is no way we can bear this by ourselves. We need the support of the federal government and the European Union.”

The central government made $100 million in cash assistance available for those in immediate need of food and shelter. An additional $200 million has been earmarked for credits and insurance compensation to businesses, farmers and homeowners.

The scope of the losses can only be hinted at while the waters continue to rise and fresh rains threaten. Dresden’s normally bustling city center has been closed off in areas that are underwater or threatened, forcing thousands to stay away from their jobs and closing shops and services at the height of the summer tourist season.

“It’s an economic disaster for all of us,” said Roland Neumann, who had to shut his excavation business Monday because clients and contractors could no longer reach or call his office.

Saxony’s school year had resumed this month, but students were sent home Monday and are unlikely to return before next week. Some clinics and hospitals in Dresden evacuated 3,600 patients to Leipzig, 60 miles to the northwest. Power and telephone outages plagued the Elbe River valley.

In the Saxony city of Grimma, where Schroeder visited those made homeless, cobblestone streets were churned up by the swift waters, leaving behind a jumble of what looked like giant gravel.

“We can’t even put a figure to the losses yet,” said Manfred Goedecke of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Chemnitz, a city traversed by a handful of overwhelmed tributaries of the Elbe. “We can only hope to come out of this with a black eye and not a whole wave of bankruptcies.”

Germany’s economy was troubled before the flooding, which has further damaged sectors such as farming that were struggling to cope with stricter environmental and consumer protections after a rash of food-safety scandals last year. Agriculture and Consumer Protection Minister Renate Kuenast warned of “a catastrophic harvest” of grain this year, since much of the crop has been destroyed by rains and flooding.

The deeply indebted national rail service, Deutsche Bahn, rerouted traffic to bypass Dresden en route to Prague, Vienna and other cities to the south because the main train station in this transport hub was underwater and its electrical and switching systems damaged.

Deutsche Bahn spokesman Achim Stauss said he could give neither a reasonable estimate of the financial burden nor a reliable forecast of normal service resumption.

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Times staff writer Maura Reynolds in Moscow and special correspondent Iva Drapalova in Zlate Hory, Czech Republic, contributed to this report.