Polish power plant in flood path

Water levels have risen three metres above the flood alert mark

SKAWINKI, Poland -- Emergency workers are fighting to protect a power station from the floods that have hit Poland, killing 10 people and causing huge damage.

Farmland in the south of the country has been ruined by the torrential rain while 10,000 people have been evacuated from their homes.

Thirty-three rivers are on flood alert and the mediaeval town of Krakow was under threat at one stage from the swollen Vistula river, but the flooding has passed downstream.

The Czarna river is 20 centimetres (eight inches) short of flooding the partly Belgian-owned plant at Polaniec.

Workers were stacking up sandbags on Friday, but Poland's Deputy Prime Minister Janusz Steinhoff predicted power supplies would not be disrupted.

A spokesman for Malopolska said the damage to the region would stretch to 500 million zlotys ($120 million) and called for it to be declared a disaster area so relief payments could be freed.

The government announced it would give nearly 300 million zlotys ($70 million) in financial aid -- including up to 6,000 zlotys per family -- to help those in the worst-hit areas.

The spokesman estimated about 45,000 hectares (110,000 acres) of farmland had been inundated and several roads made impassable in Maslowski.

In Swietokrzyskie state, north of Malopolska, towns were cut off and authorities estimated damage at 350 million zlotys.

The Paleczka River, about 350 kilometres (220 miles) south of Warsaw, was so high residents had to be plucked from their rooftops by helicopter crews in the village of Budzow on Wednesday.

Helena Mirek, 67, a resident in the nearby village of Skawinki, told The Associated Press: "It's scary to live here now, but we have no choice. We have nowhere to go."