ROUNDUP: Floods continue to endanger parts of Czech Republic

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Floods continue to threaten parts of the north-eastern Czech Republic as meteorologists expect heavy rains there to feed overflowing rivers at least until Friday evening.

Continuing rain was raising river levels around the Silesian town of Opava where residents of several villages have been advised to prepare for possible evacuation, said Sarka Vlckova, a spokeswoman for the Odra River Watershed.

River levels though began to drop in the Jeseniky mountains as rain stopped late Friday morning.

But locals now worry that a levee of an overflowing lake in the town of Krnov, already leaking in two places, could burst and flood nearby villages and an industrial zone.

Odra Watershed's workers have been struggling to haul heavy equipment across train tracks in order to reinforce the leaking levee, Vlckova said. "We hope the levee will survive," she added.

On some rivers overnight, torrential rains fuelled the so-called 20-year and 50-year flood levels, Vlckova said, expecting other local rivers to reach up to 100-year flood levels during Friday.

On Thursday night and Friday morning, firefighters helped to evacuate 138 people, said their regional spokesman Petr Kudela.

"Some have returned already but others still remain outside their homes," said Ludek Volek, mayor of Mesto Albrechtice, a town of 3,600 where the floods forced dozens to leave their homes. "They are in a school gym. We gave them breakfast and blankets."

Despite sandbagging, the waters across the region have flooded and in some cases damaged houses and gardens. The power supply to dozens of homes has been cut.

"No building will have to be torn down, but around 50 houses were hit by water and mud," Volek said of the situation in his town where the river rose beyond its usual 60 centimetres to a peak of 237.

Several local roads and train routes had to be shut down either because they were drowned in water or damaged.

Flood alarms have been also issued across central Moravia where rivers began overflowing Friday and several families had to leave their weekend homes, CTK news agency reported.

Meanwhile, rivers calmed down in southern Bohemia, another region previously endangered by floods.

The north-eastern Czech Republic was last hit by catastrophic floods 10 years ago. dpa kza bve