The Danube threatened to overcome soaked anti-flood defences in Serbia's capital and wash through towns across southeastern Europe today after heavy rains helped push it to its highest levels in a century.
The river, fed by rain and melting snow in central Europe, rose to a 111-year record high yesterday, displacing hundreds of people across the Balkans and putting thousands more at risk.
A bottleneck at Serbia's narrow Djerdap gorge, near the border with Romania, caused the river to back up and water levels to rise upstream all the way to Belgrade. Mayor Nenad Bogdanovic said he expected the waters of the Danube and the Sava river, which converge in the city, to peak today after surpassing their record highs.
"We have reinforced barriers which will resist the wave but the question is how long the water level will remain so high. That's what's worrying," said Srdjan Jovanovic, head of the Belgrade flood defence team. He appealed to citizens to avoid a popular recreation spot on the Sava, saying some young women had pierced sandbags with their high heels, increasing the danger of collapse.
Much of the Balkans is still reeling from devastating floods last year which drowned scores of people and destroyed houses, farmland and infrastructure worth hundreds of millions of euros.
Downstream, intentional flooding of a vast swath of forest and farmland in Romania prevented the river from engulfing towns there and across the river in Bulgaria. But the move forced 113 people from their homes in the village of Rast in southwest Romania, raising the total number evacuated in that country to 750.
"The controlled flooding is bearing fruit, triggering lower water levels in some locations," deputy Environment Minister Lucia Varga said.
Officials prepared to move 500 more people if the situation worsened and said 10,000 hectares (24,710 acres) more would be inundated tomorrow, displacing some 6,000 livestock.
In Bulgaria's Vidin, home to 50,000, authorities erected a tent city for potential evacueees. To the east in Nikopol, a Bulgarian town that was largely under water yesterday, authorities said the river had receded but soldiers and divers continued to fortify dykes there and in other partially swamped towns.
They said although the river should fall slightly on Monday and Tuesday, they were not out of danger as the flood now in Serbia was expected to reach the area and push waters higher again in the middle of the week.