Powerful tornado devastates south-eastern Czech Republic
26 June, 2021
A rare tornado tore through the south-eastern Czech Republic, killing at least three persons and injuring hundreds, rescue services said on Friday.
The tornado formed late on Thursday throughout a group of strong thunderstorms that hit the complete country.
Emergency staff and residents combed through wreckage on Friday following the tornado and storm ripped roofs off buildings and overturned cars.
Seven towns and villages were badly damaged, with entire buildings reduced to ruins. A lot more than 120,000 households were without electricity.
The tornado damaged towns around Hodonin, along the Slovak and Austrian borders and 270 kilometres south-east of Prague.
Firefighters searched the rubble on Friday as the army sent in a team with heavy engineering equipment to manage the aftermath of the strongest storm in the central European nation's modern history and its first tornado since 2018.
A Czech Television meteorologist said it could reach windspeeds above 332 kilometres one hour.
Rescuers from many parts of the country who found help were joined by their counterparts from nearby Austria and Slovakia.
These were using drones and helicopters to find the rubble.
In the village of Hrusky with a population of just one 1,600, a deputy mayor estimated that a third of the houses were destroyed and many needed inspections before people could safely return.
"The main village is levelled, only the perimeter walls without roofs, without windows remain," Marek Babisz told news site iDNES.
"The church has no roof, it has no tower, cars were hurled at family houses, people had nowhere to cover. The village from the church down practically ceased to exist," he said.
A spokesperson for the South Moravia region's ambulance service told Czech Television three persons died in the storms while hundreds were reported injured.
Officials said the storm destroyed a large number of homes and appealed to people never to drive to the affected areas so rescue services could work, urging them to send donations instead.
A lot more than 100 residents of an elderly home in Hodonin needed to be evacuated.
“It’s a huge tragedy,” Prime Minister Andrej Babis said.
Mr Babis cut short his attendance at the European Council summit in Brussels to go to the region where electricity and water remained shut off in a number of villages.
Source: www.thenationalnews.com
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