Chapter 3. Flood and Drought Key words and terms:

Flood, flooding	Overload	Income drop
Drought	Rainfall	Resident
Defend	Ban	Recede
Speed	Global warming	Average
Ferocity	Destruction	Kindling
Crest	Demand	Snowpack
Drown	Level	Aid
Reinforce Call for	Surge To burst banks	Aquifer State of emergency

Text 7. The Prague Flood

In August 2002 the worst flooding in 50 years damaged many countries in central Europe. Germany, Austria and Czech Republic suffered the most. The VItava burst its banks causing destruction through Bohemia. The floods came with great speed and strength. Very soon it became clear that Prague would be hit by the flood. Prague had stood safe from floods for more than a hundred years and the community in Prague could not believe that the flood presented serious danger. The travel season was closed and many people continued to work as normal. Some took measures to defend their shops and houses.

When the second wave of flooding hit Ceske Budejovice with speed and ferocity, the atmosphere changed. Fear, impotence and shock best describe the feelings of Prague citizens when they saw the water levels surging within their own city. The river rose minute after minute and no one could stop it. People fought hard to protect their properties and homes, but could not fight back with sufficient strength. The Vltava burst it banks and hit the Prague tunnels seriously. Due to the ignorance the metro lines were badly damaged. If the supervisors had not waited so long they could have been saved: the flood protection doors could and should have been closed sooner.

The Vltava river was expected to crest at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, and residents of the Czech capital's Karlyn area - in the centre of the city - were urged to leave their houses immediately. The Czech government declared a state of emergency for the capital and central and southern Bohemia, as well as for the cities of Plzen and Ceske Budejovice and the spa town of Karlovy Vary. Prague officials ordered the evacuation of 35,000 people from a section of town threatened by floodwater. Later the number of evacuated people reached 50,000.

It was announced that the Orlic dam above Prague could release as much as 3,000 cubic metres of water per second, which would double the amount of water flowing through the city when levels had peaked the week before.

One man drowned that day in Prague, apparently when he fell and was swept away by floodwater, bringing the number of dead blamed on flooding to eight. Meanwhile, floods sweeping across Europe killed at least 94 people, mainly on the Black Sea coast in Russia, Bulgaria, Romania, Austria, France and Germany.

But it was not only the metro and residential areas that suffered damage from the flood. Prague's historical legacy was also under heavy attack. Charles Bridge, the Old town with its square, astronomical clock and many historical buildings, Mala Strana with its palaces and churches - the water touched and damaged everything. The damage to the city's medieval buildings could not be assessed until the levels of muddy water, covering first and second floors, receded.

The floods heavily hit the Czech mathematical and scientific community. The largest library in the country was located in the most damaged part of Prague. About two thirds of books were strongly damaged and, despite all efforts, almost lost.

Prague municipal workers arrived at the city hall before dawn to save documents in offices. About 400 animals at Prague's zoo were moved to higher ground using cranes, but a 35-year-old Indian elephant had to be put down after becoming stranded while a rhinoceros also died.

Emergency workers reinforced the river bank laying sandbags along the rising River Vltava. They built a wall on the right bank to protect the Old Town so that if the water did not travel via the sewage system nothing would be damaged there. While relief workers were adding sandbags to the protective walls, aid workers were supplying food and water to those forced to flee their homes to evacuation centres in suburban schools in the capital.

In the south, firemen and soldiers evacuated a number of towns and villages and called for people to leave others. Trains did not run, because bridges had fallen, and buses did not run because roads had been damaged.

By the time the flood passed, the city was marked: many people were left homeless and hopeless. Electricity was no longer working in the damaged parts of the city, the traffic had collapsed and public transport was overloaded.

People helped each other and there was much assistance from those who had not suffered any damage. Volunteers helped everywhere and Prague improved day by day. Streets were cleaned, many houses refurbished, and historical sites also underwent reparations while much of the mud was taken away.

Exercise 1. Answer the following questions. Then retell the text.

1) What countries suffered from the flood?

2) How was the Prague underground damaged?

3) How many people were evacuated from the centre of the city?

4) What were emergency workers doing?

5) What was the damage to the historical centre of Prague?

6) What other problems did the flood cause?

7) How did volunteers help in this emergency situation?

Exercise 2. Complete the sentences with words and expressions from the box.

emergency services evacuation earthquakes hurricanes

relief supplies drought survivors first aid flooding

1) As a result of heavy rains, ___________ made over 200,000 people homeless.

The government organized ___________ and shelter for the homeless.

2) Violent storms, such as ____________, can cause enormous damage.

3) He organised the ___________ of the children from the disaster area.

4) The __________ pulled the ____________ from the wreck. Some were given

the ___________ but the more serious cases were taken to hospital.

5) ____________ has been the cause of some dreadful famines in Africa.

6) ____________ are measured on the Richter Scale.

Exercise 3. Fill the gaps in the text with the suitable word from the box. Each word can be used only once.

being destructive homeless inhabitants local

leave number prevented several volunteers

Last winter flood was so _______ (1) that news reporters were calling it «the flood of the century». ________ (2) people were killed and many were left _________ (3). A great deal of damage occurred in one area because a _______ (4) dam burst. The dam had cracked in a few places and was ________ (5) repaired. Engineers knew that if the dam burst, a large ________ (6) of the houses in the area would be flooded with water, so almost all the ________ (7) were moved out beforehand. Still, there remained a small amount of people who refused to _________ (8). A lot of those people died. Those who survived had plenty of help later, when hundreds of ___________ (9) from neighbouring villages came to their rescue with boats and life-rafts. The tragedy is that much more attention to maintenance rules would have __________ (10) the dam from cracking in the first place.

Exercise 4. Read the text attentively. Then render it in English.