Trees are submerged in the waters of the Elbe River in Schoenhausen, Germany, on Wednesday, June 12. Heavy rain has left rivers swollen across Central Europe.
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(CNN) -- Surging rivers in the Czech Republic, Germany and Slovakia caused widespread flooding Wednesday in the region.
Heavy rains had swelled the Elbe, Danube and Vltava rivers over the weekend, along with smaller rivers and tributaries.
The flooding prompted the evacuation of about 25,000 people in Germany and about 20,000 in the Czech Republic, where about half of the country's regions were under a state of emergency, officials said.
Eight people have died as a result of the floods in the Czech Republic, fire service spokeswoman Nicole Zaoralova said.
Read more: Floods bring misery to central Europe
Streets turned into rivers in Germany
"The situation is still critical in the city of Usti," she said. "We are expecting the situation on the River Labe (Elbe) in the northern Bohemia region of Ustecko to become worse during the day. The river has not peaked yet, and the levels are rising."
More heavy rain was predicted for the weekend.
After it passes through Usti nad Labem, the Elbe crosses into the eastern German state of Saxony; German cities downstream such as Dresden were expecting the surge to arrive within two days.
The river was expected to crest Thursday or Friday near Dresden and Meissen at about 9 meters (30 feet); its average level is 2 meters, said CNN meteorologist Brandon Miller.
The crest will push northwest along the Elbe for the next several days but should peak below 2002 flood levels, he said.
The floods are thought to be the worst since August 2002, when swaths of Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia, Russia and Romania were submerged.
Mud clearing
A state of emergency has been declared in about half the regions of the Czech Republic, the European Emergency Response Center said.
The Czech fire service was moving heavy equipment to regions at risk, Zaoralova said.
In some areas of southern Bohemia, the focus was shifting to cleanup, with equipment deployed to clear mud.
Nearly 23,000 firefighters, including volunteers, were deployed across the Czech Republic, she said.
CNN iReport: Floods in Prague through a volunteer's eyes
The Vltava River had peaked in Prague, where waters were receding, but the fire service was monitoring the waters to clear any debris that could damage the capital's historic landmarks.
An excavator was moved onto the centuries-old Charles Bridge to protect it.
Volunteer efforts
Saxony appeared to be the most vulnerable area Wednesday, after river levels dropped slightly in much of Bavaria, to the south.
Warnings were in place around the rivers Elbe, Lausitzer Neisse, Mulde, tributaries of the upper Elbe, Black Elster, Spree and White Elster, according to the German meteorological service.
Danny Arguello, an international business student in Dresden, told CNN iReport that he was impressed by the outpouring of support as volunteers tried to protect the city.
"The participation around the whole town is just amazing," he said.
Volunteers were cooking food, moving sandbags and helping with other flood preparations, he said.
Water remained high on the Danube between Regensburg and Passau, in southern Bavaria, the meteorological service said.
In Passau, where the Danube is joined by two other rivers, levels broke a 500-year-old record Tuesday.
During a visit to affected areas Tuesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel promised to deliver 100 million euros (more than $130 million) in emergency aid.
The German military has been aiding evacuation and flood defense efforts.
A fireman and a laborer died Saturday in Germany's southwestern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, the state's Interior Ministry said.
A third man jumped into rushing flood waters in what the Interior Ministry said was an apparent suicide.
Two men who were clearing storm debris died in Austria in separate incidents, Austrian Interior Ministry spokesman Karl-Heinz Grundbock said. Three other people were missing, two of them swept away by rivers.
Floods and landslides prompted an emergency declaration in three Austrian regions, and a number of railways and roads remained blocked, the European Emergency Response Center said.
However, with water levels receding, the situation was improving.
Menace moves downstream
The Danube was threatening Slovakia too.
Waters had reached flood stage in the capital, Bratislava, and were expected to rise for the next day or two.
"We expect the situation in Slovakia to become critical on Thursday, when the Slovakian portion of the River Danube is expected to peak," said Silvia Jancovicova, a spokeswoman for the Slovakian fire department.
"We are currently preparing anti-flood barriers, and planning for the possibility of evacuation of some areas in Bratislava."
No flood-related deaths had been reported there, she said.
Also at risk was the southeastern Slovakian city of Kosice, where the mayor declared a flood emergency.
The flooding follows rains in the region over the weekend that fell on ground already saturated by a wet spring.
CNN's Sarah Brown and Victoria Eastwood contributed to this report.
People salvage items from their house, which was flooded by the Danube River, in Dunakeszi, Hungary, on June 12.
A man empties a bucket of water in front of his house in Hohnstorf, Germany, on June 12.
Residents stand in front of a house that was hit by floodwaters from the Danube River in Fischerdorf, Germany, on Tuesday, June 11.
Floodwaters from the Elbe River inundate a yard with a swimming pool near Magdeburg, Germany, on Monday, June 10.
The embankment at the Pest side of Budapest is flooded on June 10. Emergency services and volunteers worked through the night in Hungary as floodwaters threatened towns and villages.
A man walks in high water from the Elbe River in Meissen, Germany, on Sunday, June 9.
Greenpeace activists walk in floodwaters from the Danube at the Chain Bridge in Budapest on June 9.
Soldiers prepare a makeshift flood barrier on Margareth Island in the Hungarian capital of Budapest on June 9.
A resident wades to a neighbor's house on a flooded street near the swollen Elbe River on Friday, June 7, in Elster, Germany.
A man walks through the mud in the village of Fischerdorf near Deggendorf, southern Germany, on June 7.
Chewbaca sits among groceries and bottles of butane in a rubber raft as his owner pulls him through a flooded street near the swollen Elbe River on June 7.
Members of the emergency services inspect a road washed away by flood water near Loebnitz, eastern Germany, on June 7.
The Inn, left, and Danube rivers flood parts of the historic city of Passau, Germany, on Thursday, June 6.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Reiner Haseloff, right, premier of the German state of Saxony-Anhalt, speak with volunteers about building a sandbag barrier near Lake Goitzsche in Bitterfeld-Wolfen, Germany, on June 6.
Residents and their pets take refuge from the flooding in a shelter in Bitterfield, Germany, on June 6.
Volunteers fill sandbags to protect Dresden, Germany, from rising floodwaters of the Elbe River on June 6.
The Elbe floods the historic city center of Meissen, Germany, on June 6.
Volunteers stack sandbags as the Saale River overruns parts of Calbe, Germany, on June 6.
Elbe River floodwaters rise over statues across from the Semper Opera House in Dresden, Germany, on June 6.
A flood container storage facility in Riesa, Germany, on Wednesday, June 5.
A neighborhood submerged in the River Danube in Straubing, Germany, on June 5.
Residents of Dresden, Germany, evacuate due to rising floodwaters of the River Elbe on June 5.
Flooded streets in Decin, northern Bohemia, on June 5.
German Lifesaving Society workers drive through the flooded area of Deggendorf, Germany, on June 5.
A woman peers out onto the street flooded by the River Danube in Passau, Germany, on June 5.
Submerged cars peak out of the flood in Deggendorf, Germany.
A man walks near a flood protection wall in Bratislavas, Slovakia, on June 5.
A house flooded by the River Danube near Deggendorf, Germany, on June 5.
A woman cleans mud from the footpath in front of her house following flooding along the Inn River in Schaerding, Austria, on Wednesday, June 5. Rising rivers menaced swaths of Germany, the Czech Republic and Austria on Tuesday, as floodwaters inundated historic cities and forced mass evacuations of low-lying areas.
Residents transport sandbags to build a flood wall in a street flooded by the Elbe River in Dresden, Germany, on June 5.
A women crosses a makeshift bridge over flooded streets in Unterloiben, Austria, on Tuesday, June 4.
A cat seeks dry ground after flooding from the Vltava River in Kly, Czech Republic, on June 4.
A resident adds a tarp to a restaurant on June 4, to help prevent damage from rising floodwaters from the nearby Elbe River in Pirna, Germany.
An aerial view shows the flooded Prague Zoo on June 4 in the Czech Republic.
Volunteers and soldiers stack sandbags on June 4 to strengthen a dam of the rising Saale River on the outskirts in Halle, Germany.
People canoe in the flooded city of Wehlen, Germany, on June 4.
Some streets are underwater in the old city in Passau, Germany, on Monday, June 3, due to heavy and ongoing rainfall.
Onlookers watch the water rise around houses on the Vltava River in Prague. The Vltava was cresting Tuesday in the Czech capital, but areas downstream still faced rising waters.
Czech soldiers erect metal barriers on the banks of the Vltava River in Prague's Holesovice district.
A traffic sign is surrounded by the flooded Berounka River on the outskirts of Prague on June 3.
Firefighters evacuate local residents in Zeitz, Germany, on June 3 from a street flooded the night before by the nearby Weisse Elster River.
The swollen Inn River rushes through downtown Passau, Germany, on June 3.
A rescuer navigates through an flooded street in Passau, Germany.
Czech army personnel build flood barriers on the bank of the flooded Vltava River in Prague. Transportation was severely disrupted in Prague, as well as other parts of Bohemia, according to a spokeswoman for the Czech Fire Department.
Firefighters and helpers evacuate citizens in the flooded city center in Grimma, Germany.
Floodwaters surround a restaurant in Prague on June 3.
Streets in Passau, Germany, were flooded after the River Danube topped a centuries-old record.
A woman wades through a flooded street in Passau, Germany, on June 3.
Evacuees forced to flee the rising floodwaters of the Weisse Elster River sit on mattresses at an evacuation center in a school gymnasium in Zeitz, Germany, on June 3.
Floodwaters cover a road in Prague on June 3.
Subway escalators stand empty in a train station in Prague on Sunday, June 2.
A statue by British sculptor Kaivalya Torpy depicting Indian spiritual leader Sri Chinmoy is partially submerged by the rising waters of the Vltava River on June 2 in downtown Prague.
