Emergency Service Rescues People from Flooding Danube + Video

Disaster tourism hinders flood protection efforts.

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

As the peak of the flood left Budapest, the focus of protection shifted to the southern section of the Danube below the capital, the spokesman for the National Directorate General for Disaster Management (OKF) told public television in the afternoon.

Flood protection efforts are carried out along a stretch of more than seven hundred and fifty kilometers in Hungary, Daniel Mukics said. These seven hundred and fifty kilometers include state and local municipality protection lines, with the disaster management primarily helping local municipalities in their protection efforts.

Temporary flood barriers are one hundered percent ready everywhere. On Saturday, there was still some sandbagging work in Bata, Tolna county, but by 6 pm it was also one hundered percent ready, and

all municipalities are prepared for the flood.

There may be occasions when intervention is needed, for example where the embankment slips, but they are confident that there will not be many similar cases.

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)