Deluge soaks Central Europe

Salzburg, Austria

Torrential rains this weekend swelled rivers across Central Europe, causing floods that forced people to flee their homes in parts of Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic. Salzburg, the beautiful city in the Alps that was the setting for The Sound of Music, was declared a disaster area, and all its bridges and roads were closed. Thousands of Austrian troops joined sandbagging brigades near Vienna, while rescue helicopters lowered baskets of food to people stranded on their roofs. In Prague, some 50,000 people were evacuated as the Vltava rose to its highest level in a century.