Nysa, Opole. Flood. City rescue operation

At 8 p.m., a message appeared on the City and Commune of Nysa profile on social media: “Dear Residents, at 8:30 p.m. we will begin the action of strengthening the river embankments at the Kościuszko Bridge. We have confirmation that the water discharge will not be increased. In connection with the above, we are using all our strength to save the river embankment. Please be careful and keep your distance.”

Earlier, after 4 p.m., the mayor addressed the residents. “EVACUATION is necessary! Residents of Nysa! We are at risk of a breach of the river embankment at Wyspiańskiego Street! Let's stick together!” – wrote Mayor Kordian Kolbiarz on his profile.

In the next entry he informed that from 5 to 8 p.m. Polish Waters will reduce the discharge of water from the dam.

“There will still be actions to patch up this hole by the army, but the situation may turn out to be the worst, i.e. the embankment on Wyspiańskiego Street will break through and the wave will go towards the city. I kindly ask you, if you can, evacuate your belongings, yourselves, your loved ones. It is worth going to the highest floor of the building immediately, because the wave may be several meters high. This means that the entire city will be flooded,” informed the mayor of Nysa.

At the same time, he asked for calm. “Perhaps the embankment will be saved. In a moment, military and fire brigade helicopters will be launched and it may be possible to patch the hole. The risk is too great for us not to mention it, and that is why I am announcing a state of evacuation,” Kolbiarz stated.

After 9 p.m. the action of strengthening the embankments in Nysa was reported by “Fakty” TVN reporter Wojciech Bojanowski and TVN24 reporter Małgorzata Marczok.

– On the one hand, it is terrifying, but on the other, it is uplifting. It seems that this action here will last all night. This is a fight for one's own city, one's own property, one's own future. These people are determined to win this fight – said Bojanowski.

Małgorzata Marczok added that the city is in a “fight against time” and that residents believe that it will be possible to strengthen the embankments and save Nysa from the great flood. – It will certainly not be a quiet night in Nysa – she noted.

– Evacuation points have been designated, including Hala Nysa on Sudecka Street – said earlier the spokesman for the Provincial Police Headquarters in Opole, Deputy Commissioner Dariusz Świątczak. He added that the residents of Nysa may remember the flood of 1997 and “everyone knows where they should go”. He asked the residents “not to get involved in unnecessary discussions, because if there is a decision to evacuate, the matter must be serious enough to do so”.

The spokesman reported that the embankments below the dam are being reinforced all the time. Work is also underway on the retention reservoirs on Lake Nyskie and Otmuchowskie. He emphasized that there are no new fatalities in the Opole region.

Telephone numbers for information on evacuation locations and directions, which will be provided by the police officer on duty, have been published on the Nysa County Office website: 47 86 352 03, 47 86 352 04.

As reported on Monday evening by Senior Brigadier Mariusz Feltynowski, Commander-in-Chief of the State Fire Service, the worst situation in Poland is in Nysa, where the evacuation of people is underway. – Among others, firefighters are on site – he added in an interview with Polsat News.

SEE ALSO: On Sunday, water broke into the hospital in Nysa.

During Monday's meeting of the crisis team with the participation of the Prime Minister Donald Tusk in Wrocław, the president of Wody Polskie, Joanna Kopczyńska, reported that there had been a “washout of the embankment on the right bank” of the Nysa Kłodzka below the weir. – There is an urgent need to secure this washout '(…) the helicopter will be dropping big bags with sand – said Kopczyńska. She added that it is necessary to reduce the discharge of water from a nearby reservoir to facilitate the evacuation.

In Nysa, lines of cars have been parked on the viaduct along Piłsudskiego Street since the afternoon. The viaduct towers over the city, where on Sunday the streets turned into rushing streams. Residents park their cars on the viaduct, thus protecting them from another wave.

– We stopped here because we have no family or anyone close to us, and we're camping. We have a dog here and we're sitting there. And we're waiting for some contact, some message at all. There are numbers you can call, but no one picks up, it's always busy, voicemail – Mrs. Ewa, who evacuated with her husband and dog from the Dolna Wieś housing estate two hours earlier (before the mayor's appeal – ed.), told TVN24 journalists. – We've had water in our apartment since Saturday, the entire ground floor is flooded. It subsided a bit today, we started cleaning, and then suddenly we got information to run away because there's an eight-meter wave coming.

They have a two-story house and they carried everything they could upstairs. But they couldn't handle the refrigerators. Before leaving, they threw bread, canned food, and drinking water into the trunk.

They survived the flood in 1997. – It's worse now than then – they say.