Emergency Service Rescues People from Flooding Danube + Video

Disaster tourism hinders flood protection efforts.

Flood barriers at Dunaszekcso (Photo: MTI/Tamas Kacsur)

Bystanders are a hindrance

The spokesman asked people to avoid disaster tourism. If the monitoring service has to deal with warning people not to go up to the levee or embankment, then it cannot perform its basic job of checking the condition of the protection lines, which is the most important task now.

In Budapest, too, there are people who go into the water, take a ladder in, or use a canoe or kayak.

On Friday near the village of Tahitotfalu, two photographers in a boat capsized, one managed to swim out, the other clung to a tree. The Pest County Search and Rescue Service had to rescue him.

Daniel Mukics asked people to follow the flood protection through the media, not from the scene, as walking on the embankment or a sandbag wall could do harm. If someone wants to walk a dog in a floodplain forest, they should do so after the flood, because even the slightest wind can uproot trees, as the soil is extremely soaked and can cause serious problems.

Monitoring dams

Disaster management staff also provide monitoring services, alongside water management specialists. There are firefighters on the levees and embankments, so that if any negative phenomena develop, they can intervene immediately on the spot. In addition, on Saturday many logistical tasks had to be performed: sandbags and sand had to be transported to certain locations, as sandbags are needed to capture flood phenomena such as seepages, leaks, and sand boils.

Daniel Mukics also highlighted that

in locations where the river began to ebb, they are present in smaller numbers but provide a constant monitoring service.

They are already coordinating with all the organizations that will be responsible for post-flood disinfection and sandbag removal, but that is not the focus yet.

Cover photo: Flood barriers at Dunaszekcso (Photo: MTI/Tamas Kacsur)