Polish town assesses damage after historic flooding

Bangkok Post Group

As the water receded in Stronie Slaskie, one of the areas worst hit by massive floods in southwest Poland, residents and volunteers began clearing up and assessing the damage. - REUTER

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00:00After massive flooding swept through the town of Stroni Śląskiej, Poland, leaving behind

00:06mountains of debris, residents are now faced with a daunting cleanup effort.

00:12Sixty-seven-year-old Mirosław Wegersen said he's been running this ice cream shop for

00:1630 years, but is not insured.

00:20He points to a spot high up on the wall where he says the water reached.

00:26He says there used to be refrigerators in this room and that, quote, everything was

00:29flying in the air.

00:33Parts of the town of 5,000 people were swamped when a dam burst last weekend during Central

00:38Europe's worst floods in more than two decades.

00:42The town, located in southwest Poland, was one of the hardest hit areas.

00:47The historic flooding swept away homes and cars, causing billions of dollars in damages

00:52and killing at least 24 people.

00:54Wegersen says one of his neighbors is among the dead.

00:58The first building on the street, the one that is completely destroyed, there was a

01:02couple.

01:03The wife survived.

01:04Unfortunately, the husband was taken away by the water.

01:07They found his body downstream.

01:09And in the morning, the wife swam away to a garage there on some log board.

01:16Wegersen and others said they will work to make their homes livable again before the

01:20onset of winter, which one resident said he hoped would come as late as possible.

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