New flooding keeps parts of Latvia under water

By AFP
August 05, 2024
People walk along a street among fallen trees after a heavy rainstorm in Kauguri, in the city of Jurmala on the coast of Latvia, on August 4, 2024. — AFP
People walk along a street among fallen trees after a heavy rainstorm in Kauguri, in the city of Jurmala on the coast of Latvia, on August 4, 2024. — AFP  

JURMALA, Latvia: Floodwaters from neighbouring Lithuania are keeping parts of rural central Latvia underwater, a week after record quantities of rain fell on the Baltic state, officials said.

The local administration in the Latvian city of Jelgava said on Sunday that areas of Lithuania “have been overflooded and the excess waters are now reaching Jelgava vicinity through Svete river”.

“Residents must be ready for evacuation,” it said.

In the central lowlands, many roads remain closed.

“Usually these meadows near the Svete river are grasslands where cows used to graze,” a local farmer, Aigars Karklins, said on Sunday.

“Ducks are swimming over the former country roads,” he said.

The Latvian state weather forecasting service said 193 millimetres fell in one day last week on the town of Kalnciems -- usually the average for over a two-month period.

The Baltic seaside city of Jurmala was hit with severe winds, which uprooted tens of thousands of trees and caused widespread damage to homes.