Flooding in Poland: Wroclaw braces for major flood wave

The shovel makes a metallic sound as it scrapes over the ground. Almost all the sand is gone, and soon, there will be just pebbles left.

Kasia Piskorek puffs with exertion as she hoists the heavy sandbag onto a wheelbarrow, then wipes the sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand. The young woman tells DW that she is relieved she got any sand at all.

Piskorek is trying to protect her home, which sits in an idyllically quiet, green part of Wroclaw, in southwestern Poland, almost entirely surrounded by two arms of the Oder River, which could merge to form a vast lake as floodwaters continue to rise.

The city has provided 26 tons of sand, free of charge, and delivered it to a former streetcar depot for residents to come and pick up as much as they need.

The sand is just one of several measures available at the former depot, explains coordinator Adela Jakielaszek from the NGO Tratwa. There's also relief aid for the flood victims from the Lower Silesia region.

Cities and towns such as Klodzko, Ladek-Zdroj and Glucholazy — all in southwestern Poland — have been particularly badly hit by the floods. Bridges were washed away, the old parts of the towns were inundated and people were made homeless overnight. Some people are still missing, while other have lost their lives.

More than 200 volunteer offer help

"People from all over Poland are trying to help and have contacted us," says Jakielaszek. More than 200 volunteers offered their assistance on Monday.

One of them is Pranav Kelkar. The 25-year-old from India came to study in Poland three years ago and now works for an IT company. He's been shoveling sand into bags to help victims of the flood.

"The pictures from the flooded regions in Lower Silesia were horrifying," he tells DW. In less than an hour, the sand is gone.

Just a few days ahead of the expected peak of the flooding, there's a mixture of panic and hope in Wroclaw.

But many people are also just curious. They've come to the city's many bridges or to the riverbanks to see for themselves how high the water level is. And it's still rising, relentlessly.

The torrential rainfall that has left a trail of destruction in the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Romania, Austria and Hungary is expected to reach Wroclaw sometime between Wednesday evening and Friday morning.

The city is situated on the Oder at a point where several tributaries — including the Olawa, the Widawa and the Sleza — meet.

When the flood wave comes, it's likely that several districts will be flooded, even if only by the rising groundwater.

Preparing 'for the worst'

At about 2 a.m. on Sunday morning, the first major flood wave reached the city of Klodzko on the eastern Neisse River. Now that the water level has dropped there, the full extent of the devastation has become apparent.

Images of what the flood did to Klodzko are what make the people of Wroclaw, which has a population of just under 700,000, so nervous. The awful memories of the 100-year flood that struck the city in 1997, and the major flood of 2010, are still all too vivid.

On Sunday evening, Wroclaw Mayor Jacek Sutryk issued the highest flood warning level available. "I would prefer to be prepared for the worst, rather than for too little," he said at a press conference.

City authorities have also warned citizens about relying on false information. Posting on X, they said it was not true that river dikes would be blown up, that tap water in the city was poisoned or that "thousands of people would be forcibly evacuated." The city appealed to citizens to only trust information from official sources.

Also on Sunday night, authorities began to reinforce the barriers in particularly sensitive areas with sandbags. Scaffolding was removed from bridges that are being repaired.

'There just isn't enough sand'

Another measure introduced on Monday was the free sand. Even before the depot opened at midday, the traffic was chaotic. "We put a diversion in place. People only had to wait patiently in line. But they completely panicked. It's pure chaos," said one staff member.

On Monday, the yard is a hive of activity. People are everywhere, busily clambering over mounds of sand and hauling sandbags to their cars. 

"I hope we learned our lesson after 1997," says Ania Kozok, who runs a local day care center. "I hope we've done our homework." She intends to use the sandbags to protect the entrance to her daycare facility.

Antoni Wysnul is only 15 years old. He asked to be excused from school to help out as a volunteer. He tirelessly shovels sand into bags and hoists them onto shopping carts and hand trucks from the nearby DIY store and into the trunks of waiting cars. "There just isn't enough sand," he says. "We'd need at least four times as much."

Because of the flood situation, the last remaining beach bars on the banks of the river have closed for the season. These bars spread sand out on the riverbanks in the summer months to create artificial beaches and attract customers.

Now their owners are posting on social media that people can come and take the sand, which would otherwise be swept away by the floodwaters. This way, it can at least be used to help protect some homes.

Evening quickly draws in. Two men have come to a beach bar and are shoveling sand into bags and loading them onto a trailer.

"There are too few helping hands," they say. "People are looking after themselves. But we want to protect our school from the flood."

Checking the water level several times a day

Parents with children in strollers, joggers, cyclists, people who are curious, people who are worried — many residents are drawn to the river over the course of the day.

Some, like Joanna Kalczewska, came several times on Monday. "I was here early this morning. There was a little less water then. But above all, the current was not as strong as it is now," she tells DW.

The concern in her voice is unmistakable. She fervently hopes that the situation will not be as catastrophic as it was in 1997.

On Tuesday morning, there are still people coming to the river banks to see how how high the water is. And they hope that the predicted flood wave won't be as devastating as anticipated.

This article was originally written in German.