Calling Kevin Day & Hungarian PHers

[gnomesmith]

Kevin,
We've seen TV coverage of the flooding Vltara in Prague but we know the Danube is getting might full, how are things in Budapest, have you had to retreat to the Castle district yet?

[angusfaldo]

I was in Prague last thursday. Boy did it rain. Had dinner in an outdoor restaurant under tarpaulin near the castle and walked back to the hotel across Charles bridge through the Jewish Quarter.

Heartbreaking to see it under water on the news. It is such a beautiful city.

[gnomesmith]

Yes I've spent happy hours in Mala Strana, I hope the Lennon wall survives.

[MikeyT]

My mate and his g/friend live in Prague 6 some ten minutes from the airport. Texted him to see if he had drowned or not and apparently he's on a hill and on the seventh floor so is OK at the mo.

[kevinday]

Thanks for the concern, we are currently fine here. Last Sunday the rakpart (road along the river bank through the city) was closed for a while because the water was covering it in one place. This is relatively normal and happens most years. The river has been known to completely cover the road some years and the river 'defences' can cope with another three meters or so because the rakpart acts as a flood plain. The rest of the city is built on the higher level. Currently it is about 50cm below the rakpart so no worries at the moment.
I saw a Czech photo yesterday of the Skoda factory, all the new cars were under about 1 meter of water, all will have to be written off . Our Progue office is underwater so temporarily closed, luckily we do not run any operations from there!

[Ministry]

Don't know whether you heard Kevin, but it is meant to hit us Sat night Sun morning. Supposedly it will be higher than the 'great' flood of '62. Our office is on new Vaci utca and the garages flooded on Sunday. Turned up to work on Monday morning to find fireman scuba diving on -4!! It was kind of amusing to see frogmen walking out of the office garage

[kevinday]

This coming weekend? From what I have heard the level is currently at 6.4 metres, danger point at 10. How did the water enter the garage, through the entrance or through the walls/floor. If the second then it is a design/building fault and will be ground water flooding not from the river.

[Ministry]

Quite right, it wasn't from the river, it was an architectural problem with the building. I think it came from the roof through the elevator shafts and from below through the drainage system in the garage.

[MikeyT]

Spoken to my mate in Prague this morning and apart from the TV news progs naming the rivers wrong, he says it's bad but the worst may be over. Says it's weird seeing streets he normally walks down having water up to the top of their traffic lights ...

[gnomesmith]

Thanks Kevin, glad its okay. You can be sure there will be no floods over the week end Ecclestone wouldn't allow it unless he had purchased the watersports rights.

[kevinday]

Actually this morning it is not looking so good. Both rakparts are under water, it looks about 8.2m now, just about 1.8m to go and they reckon Saturday/Sunday are the peak days