I just saw this news report about the city where Jackie filmed
Shanghai Knights. It is so sad what is happening to them. I just
thought you would all be interested.

P.S. I love the photo on the home page. Susi


August 14, 2002


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(Reuters Photo) Crews Battle to Protect Prague as Floods Rise




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Aug. 14
— By Alan Crosby

PRAGUE (Reuters) - Emergency workers scrambled desperately on
Wednesday to protect Prague's medieval bridges and architecture as
flood waters engulfed the historic Old Town, sending residents and
tourists fleeing to higher ground.

In the country's largest evacuation operation since World War II,
over 200,000 people across the Czech Republic have been forced from
their homes. The floods are the worst ever to hit Prague, easily
eclipsing the previous record levels of 1890.

Weather has wreaked havoc across central and eastern Europe in the
past week, with torrential rains and floods from Germany to Russia,
Austria to Romania, killing more than 80 people.

Hundreds more have died in seasonal floods in South Asia and Iran.

At Prague's world-famous 14th-century Charles Bridge, fire fighters
struggled to remove debris crashing along the wild water of the
overflowing River Vltava to protect the bridge. Six Prague bridges
were closed both for cars and pedestrians.

Normally teeming with people at the height of the tourist season, the
center of the Czech capital on Wednesday resembled more an abandoned
Hollywood set than the vibrant EU candidate hub of commerce it was
before the Vltava broke its banks the previous day.

Officials ordered the Old Town's historic Jewish quarter Josefov
vacated, though most people had already left. More than 50,000
residents left Prague on Tuesday and several other residential areas
were also being evacuated.

Germany's states of Bavaria and Saxony were also hit hard.

Many streets in historic Dresden, the Saxon capital, were closed. The
fire brigade pumped water out of the basement of the Semper opera
house, next to the Zwinger Palace, home to one of Europe's great art
museums, whose collections were unharmed.

Austria's Salzburg -- the picturesque birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart -- was also threatened. In all, seven people died after rivers
across Austria burst their banks, flooding towns and villages,
disrupting road and rail links.

In Romania, a mother and baby died when a house collapsed in violent
winds that also overturned a bus, killing the driver.

Weekend flooding in Russia's Black Sea region killed at least 58
people, mostly Russian holidaymakers.

RESIDENTS, ZOO ANIMALS, ALL SUFFER

The Czech death toll stood at nine early on Wednesday after two men
died in flood-related accidents the previous day. Several more people
remained missing.

Officials at Prague Zoo told Czech state television they had to put
down a 35-year-old elephant during a rescue mission.

Some Prague residents were at first reluctant to leave.

But as the waters of the Vltava, which rises in the Bohemian forests
and runs north into the Elbe, spilled into the streets, people began
to flee the center of the city, with its magnificent stone
architecture and numerous tourist attractions.

"The emergency system is working in complete chaos," a city official
said.

Police patrolled the entire length of the river -- and with
helicopters from above -- as it winds it way through the city,
watching for breaches in the banks.

The waters of the river Vltava showed no signs of receding on
Wednesday morning, with sewers backing up in the Old Town and the
river precariously near to bursting its embankments.

"We expect that the water will keep rising at the moment the flow
exceeds 5,000 cubic meters (175,000 cubic feet) per second, which is
an amount that comes once in 500 years on average," Martin Kupka, a
Prague city spokesman said.

He added that only 60 centimeters of space remained on barriers
erected at the side of the river to keep the water from crashing
through into the Old Town on a major scale.

Floods reached the medieval Mala Strana district beneath Prague
castle, seat of the old Bohemian kings overnight. Landmarks near the
river that have stood for centuries disappeared in hours under a tide
of muddy water.

Officials said the Vltava was some 24 feet above its normal summer
levels, and still rising at about 4-6 inches per hour.

"We still have yet to have the peak of the flood," an official at the
crisis center said. The river is now expected to peak between 1400
and 1800 GMT.

Many families were forced to spend the night in shelters created by
the city to house the evacuees, many of whom had little more with
them than the clothes on their backs.

"They told us to take what we can and head to a shelter as quickly as
possible. I took my drugs, one shirt, and a jacket. It was grab and
run," said Jana Vrbova, an Old Town resident.

Experts say damage, which will take weeks to assess, may top the 60
billion crowns ($1.88 billion) from 1997 floods when nearly 50 people
died.