* Polish government pledges financial aid
* Dam burst compounds flood damage
* Lithuania reports four dead after a storm
(Adds Lithuania deaths)
By Rob Strybel
WARSAW, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Rescue workers sought to clear
flood-borne debris including damaged cars and evacuate victims
after heavy rains and stormy winds across central Europe killed
at least 15 people over the weekend.
Heavy downpours on Saturday caused rivers to overflow their
banks and a dam to burst, submerging Bogatynia and other towns
in the southwest corner of Poland and killing at least three
people, Polish officials said on Sunday.
One woman drowned in Bogatynia on Saturday. The body of
another woman and a 55-year-old rescuer swept away by a dam
burst on Saturday were found on Sunday, Fire Brigade spokesman
Pawel Fratczak told Reuters by telephone.
Flood damage and deaths also were reported in neighbouring
countries. The death toll in the Czech Republic grew to five on
Sunday and another three were missing and feared drowned, the
Polish PAP news agency said.
On Saturday, three people died in the German town of
Neukirchen, near the Czech border.
In neighbouring Lithuania, falling trees and structures
killed four and injured several, with thousands being left
without electricity after storm winds hit the country on Sunday,
the rescue service said.
A 22-year-old woman died while camping in southern Lithuania
when a tree fell on her tent, the daily Lietuvos Rytas newspaper
reported on its website.
The army, police and fire-service rescuers were using
amphibious vehicles, helicopters and heavy earth-moving
equipment to evacuate flood victims and clear debris including
damaged cars blocking narrow streets.
News channel TVN24 reported Prime Minister Donald Tusk
pledging financial aid to the flood victims identical to that
offered to those who suffered during this May and June floods.
The victims are to get a one-off allowance of 6,000 zlotys
$2,000) for current emergency needs and up to 100,000 zlotys
(more than $33,000) for home repairs.
Weather officials told TVN24 that the violent downpour
caused the Miedzianka to overflow its banks.
BURST DAM
The waters submerged most of Bogatynia before flowing into
the Nysa, the border river between Poland and Germany, swelling
further because of a burst reservoir dam.
Meteorologists in Poland do not forecast further heavy
downpours.
The weekend deluge followed major spring and summer flooding
across Poland which caused widespread property damage and
claimed some two dozen lives.
In Germany, authorities at the weekend evacuated some 1,400
people around the town of Goerlitz, on the border with Poland,
where they expected the flooding level to rise after topping 7
metres (23 feet).
Television footage showed water gushing along a main road in
Goerlitz. Elsewhere in eastern Germany, flood levels eased.
In the Czech Republic, extra rescue personnel and soldiers
were called in to help with evacuation from some of the worst
affected towns in the north of the country, and helicopters were
used to reach villages cut off by the swollen rivers.
Thousands of residents in northern Czech Republic remained
without electricity and gas on Sunday.
President Vaclav Klaus is expected to visit the region later
on Sunday and the government will meet on Monday to discuss
releasing emergency funds to help in clean-up efforts.
While the rains had eased by early Sunday afternoon and
river levels were falling, many Czech villages were cut off,
trains were not running and the muddy conditions made it
difficult to get trucks and rescue personnel to the hardest-hit
areas to deliver assistance.
Storms and high winds left several regions in eastern
Slovakia with no electricity on Saturday, but no major damage,
casualties or injuries were reported.
(Reporting by Reuters staff in Warsaw, Berlin, Prague and
Vilnius; writing by Rob Strybel; editing by Michael Roddy)
