More than 1,000 scouts and counselors in summer camps in central Poland were evacuated ahead of heavy rainfall on Wednesday, local media reported.
TVP state television said 16 camps, where the scouts had been staying in tents outside the capital city of Warsaw, were evacuated on Tuesday.
The Polish scouts and staff were moved indoors, it added.
Deputy Minister of Education Katarzyna Lubnauer told TVP that camp officials must be careful in the face of such storms. She recalled a 2017 tragedy when two girls, aged 13 and 14, were killed by falling trees while trying to shelter in their camp tent during a severe storm.
Heavy downpours slammed the regions on Wednesday. Firefighters were repeatedly called out to respond to downed trees and flooding, TVP reported.
The evacuations came days after catastrophic flooding in Texas killed more than two dozen people at Camp Mystic, an all-girls Christian summer camp. Most of the victims were children.
At least 111 people have been killed and a further 173 are still missing after the catastrophic flash flooding swept through Central Texas.
Officials fear that the death toll could soar as search and rescue efforts entered their sixth day Wednesday, as hundreds of local, state and federal emergency responders sifted through debris for survivors.
The brunt of the disaster remains centered in Kerr County, where at least 161 people remain missing. “There could be more added to that list,” Texas Governor Greg Abbott said, with no rescues made in the region since Friday.
Among those killed were 27 young girls and staff members at Camp Mystic, an all-girls Christian summer camp situated on the bank of the Guadalupe River, which burst its banks and swelled over 20 feet in under 90 minutes on Friday. Five campers and one counselor are still missing.
The Texas Department of State Health Services had signed off on the youth camp’s emergency disaster plans just two days before the disaster struck the camp, according to ABC News.
