WROCLAW, POLAND, JULY 18 -- Deadly rain that has swollen rivers and swallowed people and villages whole in the last two weeks is still falling on southern Poland and neighboring Czech flatlands, devastating agriculture and manufacturing. Forecasters predicted the storms would continue through the weekend.
On what was proclaimed a day of national mourning for the dozens of flood victims, more heavy rain pelted this cultural center's watery streets, already lined with sandbags piled up to the windowsills. In Poland, 48 people have been lost to the overflowing, fast-moving Odra River, which grew to monstrous proportions over the past 10 days. At least 38 deaths in the Czech Republic have been blamed on the deluge. Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated in both countries, and factories, roads, farmland and animal stocks appear to have suffered massive damage.
Meanwhile in adjacent Germany, the Oder River spilled over its banks into the center of Frankfurt an der Oder, 55 miles east of Berlin. A 100-mile dike, waterlogged but reinforced overnight by sandbags, prevented more serious flooding.
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"Nature has done us in. I've lost {14 pounds} in five days because I've been working to protect my home," said Janusz Siennack, an engineer who stood, hands caked with mud and pants legs ripped and flapping in the wind, outside his two-story house on Strachocinska Street here.
From his front gate, Siennack could only count himself lucky. His 60-year-old neighbor had to navigate his way by beach raft to his muddy front door. A bright red tractor, across the street and dripping with raindrops, was up to its axles in a brown swirl of the Odra River. What appeared to be another river along the bend of a nearby road was actually a field of wheat.
"I wouldn't even try to play the wise guy in this situation," Siennack said. "Who should have done what? Nobody's smart in this situation. No diploma can make you an expert for this kind of disaster."
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The agricultural tally alone in Poland, where about one-third of all people make a living from the land, is daunting: About 900,000 chicks and ducks, 4,825 pigs and hogs, 1,855 cattle and 90 sheep were carried downstream, according to preliminary farm ministry estimates. Dead horses have been seen floating by farmhouses.
In the Czech Republic, the country's largest steel mills -- Nova Hut, Vitkovice and Trinecke Zelezarny -- cut back on production because raw materials are unable to reach the plants, and finished steel couldn't move out. Losses are soaring into multibillion-dollar estimates.
The flood rains began falling just before the two formerly Communist countries were invited to join NATO early last week and largely dampened any notion of grand celebrations. Even President Clinton's visit to Warsaw on July 10 was given muted coverage on state television. The floods topped all other news.
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Both countries' markets have slumped from fear of flood losses. The storms have sparked legislation and high-level borrowing to cover the emergency.
In Poland, the government this week sought a $710 million credit line from the Polish National Bank and a $300 million World Bank loan. The disaster also has engendered political gamesmanship and finger-pointing just two months before parliamentary elections.
Prime Minister Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz became a focus of criticism in the disaster. In the first couple days of rain, Cimoszewicz said the country had no reserve funds for disaster aid, and that he would not declare a state of emergency.
But Cimoszewicz and other leaders of the ruling coalition learned a tough lesson in democracy when floodwaters swelled last weekend around Wroclaw, which hosted Pope John Paul II in May and is Poland's fourth-largest city, with 650,000 people.
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Villagers who heard that the government would not cover damages refused to leave their homes. Then, in the villages of Kamieniec and Lany, they refused to budge from the dikes that protected their property from the unruly Odra.
When government engineers showed up to blast holes in the dike and ease the rush of the swollen river before it reached Wroclaw, the villagers revolted. Hundreds turned out on the riverbank and refused to leave. Even when government workers tried to intimidate them with tear gas and threats, the villagers said, they stood their ground.
In the end, the government retreated and the flood made its way into the city center. Cimoszewicz was left to reverse his dismissal of aid and to reassure the public that help was coming. By midweek, the government had deployed hundreds of army troops across the countryside to head a massive relief effort.
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Today, dozens of Polish army tanks in Wroclaw delivered fresh water to long lines of residents who in most cases have been without clean tap water all week. Throngs of people, drenched by the rain, huddled around public phone booths, waiting for a turn to use yet another public service that had been hampered by the deluge.
Neighboring countries are hustling to provide aid. Hungary is sending water pumps. The German Red Cross arrived this morning to begin shoring up water supplies and distribution routes.
The situation remains dire for many in the south. About 40,000 people in Wroclaw alone are cut off from the rest of the city by flood waters. CAPTION: A family builds a footbridge to its home to cope with flooding that hit Poland, the Czech Republic and Germany.
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