Polish families pick through debris after floods wash away homes

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By Barbara Erling and Kacper Pempel

RADOCHOW, Poland (Reuters) – Wearing garden gloves, 69-year-old Lucyna Kubica sifts through the remains of what was once her family home, destroyed by the worst floods in Poland in at least two decades that washed away the brick walls, and with them lifelong memories.

The Biala Ladecka river in southern Poland, near the Czech border, normally meanders through a valley lined with spruce trees, a paradise for nature lovers. As it swelled fast last month, it left huge devastation in its wake.

Kubica and her younger daughter, 38-year-old Dominika, left their house just minutes before the biggest wave of flooding arrived on Sunday Sept. 15. She only grabbed her purse with some documents inside.

Sitting at the bus stop on the nearest hill, she then watched as the floods flowed into her house, her lifetime home. Luckily, two days before she had evacuated her elder daughter and her seven-month-old grandson.

Only her husband of 40 years insisted he would stay until the last minute.

“He’s a bit of an optimist. He thought that nothing would happen,” said Kubica, recalling those dramatic moments.

“This is a floodplain, but so far water came into the house only once in 1997,” she said, looking at the rubble and mud wearily.

Her house has been in her family since 1946. Her parents moved there when they came back from Germany, where they had been sent for forced labor during World War Two.

As a nearby dam on the adjoining Morawka river burst, water flowed uncontrolled, badly damaging over 30 buildings in the small village of Radochow alone.

The floods wiped out Kubica’s barn, henhouse, and greenhouse, where in the spring she planted vegetables for her grandson. Then the front wall of the house collapsed, dashing hopes for any chances of reconstruction.

“Putting money in it makes no sense. It’s better to run away from here,” Kubica said.

CONNECTING IN PAIN

At least 26 people died in floods across central Europe last month.

The flooding left a trail of destruction from Romania to Poland, spreading mud and debris in towns, destroying bridges, submerging cars, and leaving a bill for damages that will run into billions of dollars.

As residents in Radochow and the nearby town of Stronie Slaskie were cleaning up over the weekend, some said keeping busy helped them cope with the stress of losing their homes.

Joanna Soroko, 38, who lived in Stronie Slaskie with her husband and children aged seven and eight, likens the loss of her home to the grief of losing a loved one. They won’t move back into their house which was in her family for two generations, but plan to build a new home at a safer location.

“Some people come to terms with it faster, for others it takes longer… I simply don’t know what to do with myself at the moment, so I won’t get out of this mourning for a long time,” she said, her eyes red from days of crying.

A local beauty shop where Soroko worked as a nail stylist was also destroyed, so when her children are at school, she goes to help others hit by the floods. It keeps her going.

“When you simply connect in pain, when someone has experienced a loss just like you, it’s easier,” she says.

Soroko and her family found refuge at her parents-in-law’s home. She frequently returns to check on their damaged house.

“I don’t think it ever happened that we would come and not take something from the rubble,” said Soroko, holding a metal cup, a souvenir from her friend’s trip to the city of Poznan, in her hands.

Further down the Biala Ladecka river, in the village of Oldrzychowice Klodzkie, rushing waters also severely damaged homes, including that of 56-year-old Jolanta Bauer. This is the second time that floods have destroyed her home.

In 1997, the flood water reached a metre high, but her family renovated the house and moved back in. This time she is uncertain if she can return before winter.

“You can do some renovations and in half a year you might have to face the same situation… I wouldn’t have the strength to handle that again,” she said.