“These records from 1997 are practically no longer valid. This shows the scale of this particular event, what a critical and unpredictable element water is,” Colonel Mariusz Ochalski of the General Staff of the Armed Forces said on the “Guest of News wPolsce24” program. Guest editor Michał Adamczyk admitted that in some ways the situation is worse than in 1997.
Colonel Mariusz Ochalski (Deputy Chief of the Military Engineering Board of the General Command of the Armed Forces) stressed that in some places “the situation is dramatic” and the most important task is to evacuate the inhabitants of the flooded cities.
We have experience mainly from previous floods. This is consolidated in our structures, which have the capacity to conduct both combat operations and support crisis response activities. In this phase of the flood, which is currently occurring in mountainous areas where the flood is mainly characterized by rapid flow, our options for action are limited due to the direct threat to soldiers. The heavy equipment we can deploy can also pose a threat to both buildings and other people.
– Colonel Ochalski explained. He also noted that the current task of the army is to clear the roads and allow other services to function.
Colonel Ochalski admitted that in some respects the situation is worse than it was 27 years ago.
Definitely. We were constantly monitoring both pre-flood analyses and rainfall simulations to see where the worst conditions were expected to occur. They predicted that it is practically possible to reach water levels in individual river corridors like those seen during the 1997 floods. But the current situation, for example, shows that in many places that value has been exceeded. These records from 1997 are virtually no longer valid. This shows the scale of this particular event and the critical and unpredictable element of water.
– he said.
As the colonel assured, the army is ready for another wave of floods.
We have more forces prepared, this wave is here, among others, from the Czech Republic, as well as the flood wave, both in the Silesian Voivodeship. We expect that these waves will overlap and that perhaps the great flood will be repeated in other regions of the country along the Oder basin and on the Oder itself.
EVERYTHING CAN BE WATCHED ON WPOLSCE24 TELEVISION MATERIAL:
READ ALSO: Tragic reports of more flood deaths! The body of a woman in her 70s was found in Lądek-Zdrój
olnk/wPolce24
