Worst flooding in decades kills 20

DOZENS of Austrian villagers spent a cold, wet night waiting to be rescued from their roofs after some of Europe’s worst flooding in decades.

At least 19 people died in Russia, and in Romania a 62-year-old man and an eight-year-old boy were killed when floodwaters swept through their village. In Bulgaria, state radio said two farmers died after being struck by lightning.

And vineyards, olive groves and tobacco crops were ravaged by torrential rains across northern Italy. Vast areas of Upper and Lower Austria remained under water yesterday, and more rain was forecast for the weekend.

“I have never seen anything like it, the entire region is one big lake,” said Captain Josef Puehringer of the National Fire Brigade. The Lower Austria hydrological service called it the worst flooding in the province since records began in 1896.

But water levels in the swollen Danube River were falling yesterday, easing the threat of flooding in Vienna, officials said. Rescuers were using helicopters and cranes to lift people from roofs and trees where they sought refuge from strong currents that cut off several low-lying villages in the northern Waldviertel area.

Austria’s Green Party said some of the flooding was self-inflicted because over-development and the widespread use of fieldstone since 1945 to reinforce 18,000 miles of riverbank have given floodwaters no place to go. “The mistakes of the past must no longer be made in the future,” said party spokeswoman Eva Glawischnig.