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Wednesday, August 14, 2002 - Web posted at 10:15:33 am GMT

PRAGUE, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Flood waters began to spill into Prague's historic Old Town on Wednesday morning as emergency workers raced to reinforced sandbag walls protecting centuries old architecture and complete a new round of evacuations.

Weather has wreaked havoc across central and eastern Europe in the past week, with torrential rains and floods from Germany to Russia killing more than 80 people. Hundreds more have died in monsoon floods in South Asia.

Rising rivers flooded the historic city of Dresden, and Salzburg was threatened by the floodwaters that have brought death and destruction to whole swathes of the continent at the height of the summer tourist season.

The Czech capital was hit by the worst floods in more than a century. The waters of the river Vltava showed no signs of receding on Wednesday, with sewers backing up in the Old Town and the river precariously near to bursting its embankments.

Floods reached the mediaeval Mala Strana district beneath Prague castle, seat of the old Bohemian kings overnight.

Officials ordered the Old Town's historic Jewish quarter Josefov vacated, though most people had already left. More than 50,000 residents left Prague on Tuesday and several other residential areas were also being evacuated.

Officials said the Vltava was some 7.5 metres (23.5 feet) above its normal summer levels, and still rising at about 10-15 centimetres (4-6 inches) per hour.

"We still have yet to have the peak of the flood," an official at the crisis centre said.

With the water swelling higher and faster than previously forecast, emergency crews and volunteers worked feverishly to build sandbag walls to protect the picturesque Mala Strana quarter from serious damage and keep the water from the 13th century buildings on the square.

In the Old Town Square, home to the famous 15th century astrological clock whose hourly parade of the apostles is watched by thousands, sandbags were piled high in the hope the the area might escape serious damage.

"The protective barriers (of sandbags) should not be broken. The Old Town should remain safe," Prague Mayor Igor Nemec said.

200,000 CZECHS FORCED FROM HOME

In all over 200,000 people across the country have been forced from their homes in the largest post-World War Two evacuation operation. The floods are the largest ever to hit Prague, easily eclipsing the previous record levels of 1890.

Many families were forced to spend the night in shelters created by the city to house the evacuees, many of whom had little more with them than the clothes on their backs.

The Czech death toll stood at nine early on Wednesday after two men died in flood-related accidents the previous day. Several more people remained missing.

Officials at Prague Zoo told Czech state television they had to put down a 35-year-old elephant during a rescue mission.

President Vaclav Havel was cutting short a holiday in Portugal, where he had been convalescing from a bout of bronchitis, out of concern over what some officials were calling the worst floods in the city's 800-year history.

Some Prague residents were at first reluctant to leave.

But as the waters of the Vltava, which rises in the Bohemian forests and runs north into the Elbe, spilled into the streets, people began to flee the centre of the city, with its magnificent stone architecture and numerous tourist attractions.

The river water was flowing at nearly 5,000 cubic metres (175,000 cu ft) per second, nearly 100 times the summer average, on Wednesday morning. Police patrolled the entire length of the river as it winds it way through the city, watching for breaches in the banks.

DAMAGE NEARLY $2 BILLION

Experts say damage, which will take weeks to assess, may top the 60 billion crowns ($1.88 billion) from 1997 floods when nearly 50 people died.

Calamity has not been limited to the Czech Republic. In Germany the swollen river Elbe has forced the partial evacuation of the Baroque city of Dresden, and the Zwinger Palace, home to one of Europe's great art museums, lay partly under water.

In Austria, deaths were reported in Salzburg and officials said the river Danube was rising by up to a metre an hour.

In Romania, a mother and baby died when a house collapsed in violent winds that also overturned a bus, killing the driver.

Weekend flooding in Russia's Black Sea region killed at least 58 people, mostly Russian holidaymakers.

The German states of Bavaria and Saxony were also hit hard. Many streets in Dresden, the Saxon capital, were closed. The fire brigade pumped water out of the basement of the Semper opera house, next to the Zwinger, whose art collections officials said were unharmed.

Weeks of torrential rain in parts of South Asia have killed nearly 800 people and caused widespread damage to crops, roads and villages -- while other parts of the sub-continent remain parched by drought. (with contributions from Vienna, Berlin and Bucharest newsrooms) Nampa-Reuters 0822 140802 WEB story ENDS (NAMPA 140826)

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