Warsaw prepares flood defences

Villagers are evacuated in Sokolniki, southern Poland, on Monday

WARSAW, Poland -- Emergency workers are on standby in Warsaw as flood waters passed alert levels in the Polish capital.

A massive flood wave has caused chaos throughout Poland, with thousands of workers reinforcing dykes with sandbags and evacuating villages on Monday ahead of the 100-kilometre-long (65-mile-long) wave coursing down the country's largest river.

Dozens of villages in central Poland are under threat from the waters moving northward in the Vistula River after weeks of storms and floods that have killed at least 25 people and caused tens of millions of dollars in damage in the south.

The flood wave was expected to crest in Warsaw on Monday night. It rose above alert level during the day, flooding beaches, private weekend gardens and sports centres.

Emergency crews are on alert, with fire engines and boats stationed near possible weak points -- including the Warsaw Zoo and a promenade -- as the water crept higher. But city officials said they were confident river dykes would hold.

The flood waters reached Warsaw on Monday

In the south of the country, an army engineering battalion used boats and amphibious vehicles to ferry food and water to the village of Trzesn, about 200 kilometres south of Warsaw on Monday. The ground floor of nearly every house in the village was flooded.

"We are trying to persuade them to leave, but they decided to stay and take care of their homes," said Capt. Leszek Stepien, 38, whose special unit was formed after severe flooding four years ago.

About 1,500 residents of the villages of Kepa Gostecka and Kepa Solecka, downstream from Trzesn, were evacuated by bus after rising water breached the Kamien dyke at 5.30 a.m. local time (0330 GMT), national firefighter spokesman Witold Maziarz said.

The floods are the worst since the summer of 1997, when storms and rampaging rivers swamped 46,000 homes, killed 55 people and caused an estimated $3.4 billion in damage.

Thousands of people have been forced from their homes in southern Poland

Floodwaters have been surging since last week along the Vistula, which flows through Poland's major cities, farmlands and industrial zones on its 1,050-kilometre (650-mile) course from the mountains of southern Poland to the Baltic Sea.

Further storms were forecast for late Monday in southern Poland, but were predicted to be less intense than the series that hit last week, said Malgorzata Mierkiewicz of the Meteorology Institute in Warsaw.

Government hydrology experts say that because of the length of the surge in the Vistula it takes 24 hours to pass any given point, putting sustained pressure on dykes.