Noah's European Nightmare
The floods in Europe have wreaked havoc on more than historical treasures. Petr Fejk, the director of the Prague Zoo, says he's gotten dozens of message attacking his decision to euthanize some animals to save them from the floods that have ravaged his city.
He says it's "like rubbing salt into an open wound."
About a thousand animals were evacuated to higher ground or other zoos. But about 90 others died, some by drowning, others from trauma, injuries or stress after the move.
The zoo has had to euthanize an elephant, a hippo, a bear and a lion, fearing they could become dangerous.
Now the director says he's gotten death threats and messages calling him a cold-blooded murderer. He says he's heartbroken by what happened, and it involved the toughest decisions of his life.
Meanwhile, firefighters fished tree trunks and other debris out of the Elbe on Friday, as Hamburg braced for floodwaters that caused catastrophic damage further upriver. The dikes held firm against rising water levels in northwestern Germany, at least for the time being.
As Dresden and the surrounding state of Saxony picked up the pieces, emergency workers and volunteers farther down the Elbe River in northwestern Germany appeared to be winning their battle to protect already sodden dikes against the flood wave.
Still, authorities in the northern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania ordered new evacuations as the swell headed for the river's mouth near Hamburg.
In Hamburg itself, authorities said the floodwaters were expected to stay some 10 feet below the top of the dikes. However, the fire service put eight boats to work salvaging debris that could otherwise damage small vessels in the harbor.
Officers hauled about 20 tree trunks out of the fast-flowing waters overnight, and were preparing to load barges with everything from household junk to dead animals for disposal.
"The wood is just the start of it," said Bernd Horn, the leader of the operation. "If the flood wave arrives Friday evening, we could get refrigerators, barrels, even mobile homes and containers."
The death toll from the floods that have raged across central and eastern Europe rose to at least 114, after a 35-year-old driver near the east German town of Riesa died when his vehicle overturned on a flooded road.
The floods severely damaged scores of roads, rail lines, bridges, stores and private homes in Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, leaving a massive cleanup and rebuilding task estimated to cost about $19.4 billion.
The Austrian Institute of Economic Research on Friday estimated the country's flood damage at $7.3 billion.
Experts estimate the repair bill for damage to museum cellars and infrastructure in Dresden at $59 million.
In the Czech capital, Prague, cleanup crews carted away debris, but authorities warned it may take months before life gets back to normal in some neighborhoods in the city, where the subway remained partly submerged.