PEAK OF DANUBE FLOOD MOVES ON TO BUDAPEST

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27405, 19 July 1954, Page 9

PEAK OF DANUBE FLOOD MOVES ON TO BUDAPEST

(Rec. 9.20 p.m.) VIENNA, July 17. .. A • t ? te of em „ er Sency has been declared in the Hungarian industrial town of Gyoer as the peak of the Danube floods moves towards Budapest. ~

The Budapest Radio said today that the river is expected to reach its peak at Budapest on Sunday or Monday. Mass evacuations and the strengthening of dykes along the banks °J, Danube are continuing, work on the dykes is aided by Hungarian and Soviet troops.

At Gyoer all factories and offices had stopped work, the Budapest Radio said. All workers were toiling at the dykes. The suburb of Revfalu has been completely evacuated, and in the heart of the city water flowed through the streets, the Budapest Radio said. Abda, east of Gyoer, and the whole of the low-lying Szigetkoez Island between the two arms of the Danube, has been evacuated.

More than 50,000 persons are being from, emergency kitchens. The Hungarian Prime Minister (Mr Imre. Nagy) and the Minister of the Interior, Mr Laszlo Piros, have arrived at Gyoer to superintend rescue and relief operations. Troops have harvested all crops nkely to be flooded, whether ready for cutting or not. Prague Radio announced that considerable flood damage had been caused in Southern Slovakia, especi-

ally round Bratislava. Zhitni Ostrov (Wheat Island) was completely submerged, although most of the crop was cut in time. The floods are now receding in the Austrian reaches of the Danube. The Austrian Chancellor. Dr. Julius Raab, last night called them “the greatest natural catastrophe in human memory' in Austria.” The United States High Commission m Austria has given nearly 300 tons of food, worth £23,000, to the Austrian National Committee for flood relief.