Prague on high flood alert as central Europe faces torrential rain

By Jan Lopatka

PRAGUE (Reuters) - Prague was putting up flood defences in the city's historic centre on Friday after Czech forecasters expanded a warning for extreme rainfall to areas of the country including the capital, which suffered catastrophic flooding more than 20 years ago.

Heavy rain has pounded mostly eastern parts of the Czech Republic since Thursday, and the most affected areas may see more than a third of annual rainfall over four days by Sunday.

Similar weather has been forecast around central Europe, including southern Germany and parts of Austria, Poland, and Slovakia over the coming days.

"Data shows we are facing uneasy days," Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala told a televised briefing after a crisis committee meeting, adding that in some places water levels may exceed flooding coming on average once in 100 or more years.

"We are taking all the necessary measures to prevent damage to property and health."

On Friday, the highest risk warning was extended to central and southwestern areas including Prague, where in 2002 floods forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of people, led to building collapses and flooded the capital's subway system for months.

Prague, a city of 1.3 million people, has since invested heavily into flood barriers and other measures to avoid similar inundations.

Prague mayor Bohuslav Svoboda said on Czech television that waters in the city, which sits on the banks of the Vltava river spanned by the picturesque 14th century Charles Bridge, were expected to peak on Saturday night.

"We are acting in a preventative mode and we believe that starting anti-flood measures now, we believe the situation of 2002 will not repeat itself," he said.

Water management authorities have started to empty reservoirs on the Vltava dam cascade upstream from Prague, as well as on other rivers, to make room to dissipate the expected flood waters.

The most heavy rain was still expected in the country's east and northeast, which are drained by the Elbe (Labe), Danube and Oder (Odra) rivers flowing to Germany, Slovakia and Poland, respectively.

The Czech soccer league cancelled matches across the country, and cities cancelled cultural events. Fire officers helped fill sandbags and put up fixed flood barriers in a number of towns and cities.

The southern Polish city of Wroclaw cancelled outdoor cultural events, and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said emergency services would be ready for localised flooding.

The Morava river, which forms the Czech-Slovak and Austrian-Slovak borders before reaching the Danube, threatened to overflow and Slovakia's government has started to look for places to artificially spill out the river in non-populated areas, Slovak Environment Minister Tomas Taraba said.

(Reporting by Jan Lopatka and Jason Hovet; Editing by Alison Williams)