2002 flood day after day: it was August 31st and the floods had another casualty

August 31, 2002: heavy rain

Until the end of August 2002 it was not peaceful in the Czech Republic. As if the great floods of the first half of the month, which became one of the most destructive in history, were not enough, on Saturday night, August 31, 2002, torrential rains fell again in southern and central Bohemia.

Source: Diary

The precipitation was not without its consequences, although it was insignificant compared to the previous flood. The worst was in the city of Ceske Budejovice, where the water complicated transportation in several places and flooded the cellars. However, a second flood level has been announced in the district capital. For example, in the village of Březí in the Central Bohemia region, torrential rains caused hydrologists to declare a flood level of three.

Saturday August 31, 2002 was also tragic in Tibon. The flood claimed another human life there. On Dukelská Street there, a man used a petrol pump to pump water from a flooded cellar. In a closed room, he inhaled fumes, fainted and fell into the flood waters on the ground, drowning in it.

looting in court

Meanwhile, people across the country continued to clean up the damage caused by the August floods. But there were also quite a few who were not shy about abusing the calamity. As of the last day of August 2002, the police had recorded more than twenty burglaries across the country. Some events have already been dealt with by the court – for example, the offender was sentenced to four months in prison for looting in Prague 5, the court is also awaiting a nineteen-year-old young man who, during the eviction, wanted to steal items worth 2500 kroner from empty spaces In the old town of Prague.

In Prague, the problem of the flooded subway was solved. The transport company in Prague and the company Metrostav, which built a large part of the metro, began to blame each other for the catastrophic and unexpected situation that occurred during the flood, when some stations were completely flooded. At the flooded stations of Line B, Palmovka and Můstek, the floor and wall also broke during the flood – it was assumed that the water got into Line A due to a broken floor at the Můstek station.

2002 flood
• The flood affected the area in the basins of the Vltava and Elbe rivers, and later also in the Ogi and Dege, so it was mainly southern, central and northern Bohemia. However, even Moravia was not spared from the rising water level. At the same time, it has caused disaster abroad, especially in Germany, Poland, Slovakia, and Austria-Hungary
• A third of the Czech Republic was affected by heavy water
• The floods were caused by heavy rains
• The first flood wave occurred mainly between August 7-9, 2002, but unlike the flood of 1997, the second flood wave that swept the country between August 12-16, 2002 had much worse consequences.
• The flows had the character of millennium floods in some places
• 17 people and 134 animals died from the Prague Zoo, and thousands of homes were destroyed or damaged
The damage amounted to 73 billion kroner

Source: Wikipedia

The 2002 flood day by day: