Prague, June 27, (dpa/GNA) – Clean-up work has begun after this week’s devastating tornado in the south-east of the Czech Republic.
Soldiers and firefighters were on Saturday clearing away cars that had been tossed around by the tornado.
Structural engineers were checking which buildings had to be demolished because of the danger of collapse. No one was thought to be buried under the rubble.
Five people were killed and about 200 injured in the storm on Thursday. Among the dead, according to a report by the Czech public broadcaster, is a pregnant woman from neighbouring Slovakia whose unborn child also died.
Hundreds of buildings were partially or completely destroyed in seven towns in southern Moravia.
According to the weather service’s assessment, the tornado left a 500-metre-wide and 26-kilometre-long swathe of devastation. “I lived through the war, but I have never seen anything like this in my life,” an elderly woman told the CTK agency.
The Ministry of Regional Development announced it would provide the equivalent of 16 million euros (19.1 million dollars) in emergency aid for reconstruction.
Prime Minister Andrej Babis also plans to apply for money from the EU Solidarity Fund, which provides aid after major natural disasters.
Aid organizations also received the equivalent of almost 6 million euros from private donors for the storm victims within a very short time.
GNA