– I said goodbye to my wife and left. It's better to die than watch someone else die – says Arek. He fought his way through the flood in Stronie Śląskie to save his neighbor, who was thrown onto the roof of a neighboring building. Patryk, Mariusz, Wojtek and Sławek also risked their lives. They drove their machines into the deep water so that the nearby blocks of flats wouldn't collapse. – You know yourself as well as you've been tested. And many of us passed this test with flying colors today – says Marian. In the evenings, he and his son chase looters who want to take what has miraculously survived in the city.
Here the water simply did not rise, did not “come out” of the riverbed and slowly swallow the buildings. Here it was completely different. After the dam burst – like an avalanche – it rushed into the city, ramming everything in its path. It snatched cars, broke windows, tore off doors with frames, tore off parts of walls, and in seconds turned buildings into a pile of rubble. When the rushing wall of water reached the center of the town, Mrs. Barbara and her husband Andrzej were in the two-story house. They were on the first floor. Downstairs there was a store with electronics and household appliances run by the couple. The structure of the house was torn apart, as if some superhuman force had torn all its insides out. The current carried them both away.
The house of Mrs. Barbara and her tragically deceased husband almost does not exist anymoretvn24.pl
The flood carried the woman over 130 meters, between cars, branches, rocks, and building debris tossed by the waves. Until she managed to grab onto the roof of Arkadiusz Ramza's four-meter-high garage. “I saw her climb onto it with all her remaining strength,” the man tells me.
READ ALSO: What do mountain forests have to do with floods?
The garage that became a shelter for the neighbor is adjacent to his two-story house. When the dam collapsed on Saturday around noon, he and his wife ran upstairs. The ground floor was flooded almost to the ceiling. “At first we had no way to help this lady, but then the water receded slightly and the roof of the garage where the neighbor was was dry. I threw dry clothes and blankets in a bag for her because she was soaked and frozen,” says Arkadiusz, a paramedic by day.
The roof that Mrs. Barbara grabbed onto. In the background is Arek's house, which saved her.tvn24.pl
He notified the services about the woman trapped on the roof. “I called a helicopter. They came, but in all the confusion they couldn't find her. Time passed, and I saw that Mrs. Barbara was getting weaker. I knew that if I didn't go get her, she simply wouldn't survive,” he says.
To do something
Read more after logging in
Get access to premium content free and ad-free