Latvia directs evacuation during ‘worst’ floods

JEKABPILS, Latvia: Latvian authorities on Sunday urged residents of certain central areas to evacuate their homes in response to the worst flooding the Baltic state has seen in decades.

“It will be near impossible to get you out from among the ice cold sludge once it rushes into your homes,” Raivis Ragainis, mayor of the city of Jekabpils, warned on local radio. Particularly exposed are Jekabpils and the town of Plavinas and surrounding areas, where the flow of the Daugava river has been blocked by pack ice that drifted in from Belarus.

“Chunks of ice and torrents of ice-cold water rapidly took over our city,” Jekabpils resident Maris Kodols told AFP. “These are the worst floods since 1981,” he said, adding that current water levels are just five centimetres (two inches) below that year´s all-time record.