Railway workers and Austrian soldiers try to lift a bridge destroyed by floods with a crane in Schwertberg in Upper Austria on August 15, 2002. Some 10,000 homes have been left uninhabitable by floods that have been described as Austria‘s worst disaster since World War Two.

PHOTO - REUTERS

Caption: Boats are floating above the piers in a flooded street in front of the historic skyline of the eastern German town of Dresden at the river Elbe on August 15, 2002. In the German state of Saxony, where authorities declared the worst flooding in the regions history, the death toll rose to six, while at least two men were missing and 95 were slightly injured. PHOTO - REUTERS

DRESDEN, Germany – Dresden suffered its worst flooding in more than a century on Thursday and receding waters in Prague began to reveal the damage wrought on the Czech capital.

As a huge wave of water flowed along central Europe‘s rivers, other towns and cities including the Slovak capital Bratislava remained on alert. Floods have killed more than 80 people from the Black Sea to the Baltic and destroyed billions of euros‘ worth of buildings, infrastructure and crops.

A man died on Thursday when Czech police blew up five cargo craft which had broken their moorings and were drifting dangerously along the River Elbe. He was hit by shrapnel as he watched the operation from the shore, Czech television reported.

A Czech chemicals factory leaked poisonous chlorine gas after flood waters damaged the building.

Officials said about 3,000 of Dresden‘s 480,000 residents had been evacuated. Some 800 hospital patients were moved from Dresden and the rest of Saxony. Tens of thousands more Germans were moved from other towns along the Elbe and Mulde rivers.

Countries along the route of the floods struggled to come to terms with the inevitable multi-billion-euro (dollar) cost of cleaning up after the catastrophe. Austria said it would cut an order for Eurofighter jets and postpone tax cuts to help fund around one billion euros in aid to its victims. Dresden, the Saxon capital and one of Germany‘s cultural jewels, was almost totally destroyed by British and American bombers in 1945. Reconstruction has intensified in the past decade, since German reunification. Thousands of works of art in the ornate Zwinger Palace, home to one of Europe‘s great art collections including Raphael‘s „Sistine Madonna“, were moved to higher levels as water flooded its vaults and those of the restored Semper opera house nearby. Tourists joined locals in unloading sandbags to protect the city. German police said 27 people were missing in Dresden and the region and that number was climbing. There had also been a few incidents of looting.

In Austria, where some 10,000 homes are thought to have been left uninhabitable by floods that have been described as the country‘s worst disaster since World War Two, the government said it would delay tax reforms to help fund an aid package.

In Bratislava, Slovak soldiers reinforced anti-flood barriers against the Danube‘s highest level in a century, but officials said the risk of the river overflowing its banks was receding. Hungarian authorities were keeping an eye on the rising waters of the River Danube, but said they were unlikely to breach defences designed to protect Budapest from floods.

The waters were falling in the Czech Republic, where authorities this week moved more than 200,000 people to escape the worst floods since records began over a century ago.

Austrian authorities said the situation there was improving, water levels were falling and Vienna was not threatened. With barriers holding the flood waters at bay for the most part, Prague‘s ancient Old Town was spared. But officials said other areas remained under several metres of water and warned evacuated residents not to return yet.

Though flood waters were stopped from sweeping through the Old Town Square and the 14th century Charles Bridge was not expected to be damaged, other centuries-old buildings were feared to have fared worse. Twelve people have died in floods in the Czech Republic. Officials in Saxony said on Thursday the death toll there had risen to nine. Seven have been killed in Austria and weekend flooding in Russia‘s Black Sea region killed at least 58. Officials said on Thursday that nearly 100 animals died during an evacuation of Prague zoo, including an elephant, five rhinoceros, a lion, a gorilla and 80 birds. Reuters