Death toll reaches 16 as ‘dramatic’ flooding in central Europe continues

The Czech Republic, Poland and Austria fear worst may yet be to come as thousands are evacuated to higher ground

The #Czech police chief, Martin Vondrášek, told local radio on Monday that a woman had 🔸drowned in a stream that overflowed its banks near Bruntál, a town of about 15,000 people in the north-east of the country, while 🔸seven more people were still unaccounted for.

In #Austria, local media reported that 🔸two men aged 70 and 80 drowned after being trapped by rising flood water in their homes in the towns of Böheimkirchen and Sierndorf, both in the hard-hit north-eastern state of Lower Austria.

The number of victims in #Poland rose to six after a surgeon returning from hospital duty drowned in the south-western town of Nysa and four people 🔸died in the southern towns of Bielsko-Biała and Lądek-Zdrój, firefighters said.

⚠️Hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes across a swathe of Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia as #Storm #Boris unleashed what one mayor described as a “catastrophe of epic proportions”.

Flooding has burst #dams, flooded #streets, knocked out #electricity and in some places submerged whole neighbourhoods.

“I have lived here for 16 years and I have never seen such flooding,” one Austrian woman, Judith Dickson, told public radio.

Six people died in #Romania over the weekend, as well as one in #Poland and a firefighter in #Austria.

The rain was expected to ease on Monday but, with ♦️some rivers unlikely to reach peak water levels for days, ♦️several major cities were preparing for potentially disastrous flooding.

theguardian.com/world/2024/sep…

More bomb threats hit Springfield, Ohio, after Trump elevates false claims about Haitians

Hospitals were sent into lockdown, government buildings shut down and local schools evacuated

Two hospitals in #Springfield, Ohio, were sent into #lockdown after #bomb #threats, police said on Saturday,
marking ♦️the fourth such case in as many days that appears ♦️linked to false claims circulating among the far right that Haitian #immigrants there are #eating domestic #pets and wildlife.

Saturday’s threats came 🔸even after the woman who started the rumors acknowledged to NBC News that they were #unfounded and publicly apologized.🔸

#Kettering Health Springfield was one of the medical facilities targeted, with officials later saying they found nothing suspicious during a search. Another hospital, #Mercy Health’s Springfield regional medical center, received a similar threat.

A spokesperson with Mercy Health said the hospital had continued to operate and thanked Springfield police as well as hospital staff “for their swift, efficient and caring response”.

The bomb threats on Saturday came after others had been called in to #government #buildings Thursday, forcing their closure and causing local #schools to be #evacuated.
“We recognize that the past few days have been particularly challenging for everyone in our community,” Springfield police said in a statement. Police added “we remain fully committed to ensuring the safety and wellbeing of each and every person”.

On Friday, a Springfield woman,
👉#Erika #Lee, #apologized for rumors about Haitian immigrants eating pets that resulted from a post she wrote on Facebook claiming that the friend of a neighbor’s daughter lost her cat – and then found the animal strung up outside the home of a Haitian family.

🔸Lee now says she had no firsthand knowledge of the claim. The neighbor referenced in the post, Kimberly Newton, revealed that she also had heard the story from an acquaintance and not her daughter.
Lee said she was filled with regret and insists she never intended to put a target on the backs of the Haitian community.

“It just exploded into something I didn’t mean to happen,” Lee told NBC News on Friday.
❇️Local authorities in Springfield had already debunked the lies even 🔸before #Donald #Trump made the allegation that Haitian immigrants were eating pets during the debate with Kamala Harris on Tuesday.
Lee told the outlet she never imagined her social media post would become fodder for #conspiracy #theories and #hate aimed at the Haitian community in Springfield.

theguardian.com/us-news/2024/s…