by John Sparrow in Budapest
Poland's swollen rivers have fallen
but vast expanses of water remain on the rural landscape, and a tough winter
lies ahead for 50,000 victims of summer floods. Latest surveys from Polish
Red Cross branches tell a story of destroyed homes and livelihoods, thousands
of houses damaged or in danger of collapse, and crops ravaged or ruined.
A covering of stinking brown mud nurtures a growing plague of mosquitoes
in many places.
Reporting from the hard-hit southern region of the country, International Federation regional delegate Jon Fredrik Klepzig said, "The emergency is over, the rivers are almost back to normal but the land is waterlogged and I am seeing an endless succession of newly-formed lakes. Fire brigades from all over Poland are trying to pump the water back into the rivers but it is a frustratingly slow process."
The social and economic cost of the floods and storms, which swept Poland for a month, is worrying. Besides serious damage to infrastructure and water and gas supplies, the personal loss is gigantic. Klepzig reports that farmers' main cash crops have been devastated, and fruit growers have seen huge areas of trees inundated and this year's harvests lost. "Even small family gardens which should have provided food for the coming winter are gone," he said.
The water is likely to remain for at least the coming two weeks, depending on the weather. "If it stays sunny we should begin to see an improvement," said Katarzyna Stepinska, Senior Officer for Disaster Preparedness at the Polish Red Cross. "But the forecast is not encouraging. More bad weather is supposedly on the way." Stepinska anticipates that a long-term impact will be felt. "Past experience tells us that," she said. "People are still suffering from the effects of our 1997 floods."
The full extent of the damage to homes will not be seen until the spring, Stepinska believes. "We can see that thousands upon thousands of homes have been damaged. Some will be repairable, some will not. Right now many are still full of water. It will be the spring before the complete picture emerges. First we must go through the winter. Houses which are dry should be okay, those which are not could collapse. We have seen that before, unfortunately."
Coal to dry flooded homes is now urgently needed, and is part of a 2.9 million-Swiss franc appeal launched by the International Federation last week. Post-emergency needs also include household equipment, bedding and kitchen sets. Said Klepzig today, "In the homes I see nothing has escaped the water."
During the emergency, hundreds of Polish Red Cross volunteers delivered relief supplies throughout the stricken areas. The Red Cross now intends to help 50,000 people in serious distress through the coming months, 20,000 of them in Kielce, 12,000 in Rzeszow, 6,500 in Krakow, 4,000 in Lublin, 4,000 in Gdansk, and 3,200 in Slupsk.
