‘Catastrophe region’: Austrian city faces up to scale of damage left by deadly flooding

The streets of St Pölten, Austria, are submerged in floodwater. The city’s mayor said some communities were flooded twice – first from river water and second from groundwater. Photograph: Christoph Reichwein/Avalon

By the third night of rain, the situation in the command centre had escalated from tense to critical. Mateusz Fryn, the deputy firefighter chief in St Pölten, Austria, told his colleagues to stop filling sandbags and pumping water out of basements. Instead, it was time to focus on saving lives.

“It was no longer about acting, it was about reacting,” said Fryn, standing in front of a map of the town and pointing to water-logged areas that had needed rescue operations.