Hungary expects Danube Floods

Hungary Expects Danube Floods

Update 09/06/13

The Danube levels were at 887cm midday Sunday June 9th 2013 in Budapest.

According to Hungary’s National Disaster Management, the peak of the Danube flood is to be expected tonight, between 6 pm and midnight with 895cm.

Flood defences stand at 930cm.

The high waters of the Danube are moving down river from Germany and are now threatening Hungary and Slovakia.

Work on flood protection continues in Hungary in Győr-Moson-Sopron, Komárom-Esztergom, Pest and Budapest. According to the Hungarian National Disaster Management Department, there is a flood protection alert and preparedness along ca. 760km of the river Danube.

The Danube is expected to flood (or at least peak) on 8th June in Nagybajcs, in the district of Győr-Moson-Sopron in the north west of Hungary. Flooding is expecting in the capital of Budapest between 10th and 11th June. Record river levels have been predicted. The Danube levels stood at 7.89 metres at around 10:00 today (07/06/13). It appears to be rising at around 2cm per hour, which will bring levels above 8 metres some time today. Levels are expected to peak at around 8.75 metres. In 2002 floods, the highest level then was 8.49m.

Mayor of Budapest, István Tarlós held a press conference today (07/06/13) about the flood threat and preparations. According to The Budapest Times:

Budapest mayor István Tarlós has announced that Budapest is currently protected to a water level of 930 cm, not 950 cm like it was previously reported. That includes the already affected Romái-part and Margaret Island according to Tarlós.

Earlier this week, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said:

“The water mass that is coming our way is enormous and represents a real threat to human lives, but we can protect ourselves if we work well,”

Work on flood protection and defences continues in Budapest, as does planning for possible evacuations, which the Prime Minister said may be necessary. High river levels could be further exacerbated by heavy rain. The Hungarian Weather Service OMSZ has issued a weather warning for rain for the third day in a row, and say heavy rain could hit large parts of Hungary later today.

Budapest is of course a huge tourist destination and boasts many beautiful buildings along the river, but it appears that the most popular attraction in the city of late is the River Danube itself.