L.D. and others, this is really nice surprise: You only need to put large part of Central Europe under water - and arachne-digest is working again. I am writing this from Bethlehem chapel, quite close to the tunnel connecting our dry Prague-Zizkov with wet Prague-Karlin.
Most of the 1 million inhabitants of Prague have not been touched by the flood, but the worst damages occurred in the central part of the city, which has fatal consequences for the infrastructure. Eg. the famous Prague metro that goes more than 50 meters into the earth is now filled with water and looking like a gigantic jammed WC. And it is not only Prague, the worst situation is in South Bohemia, Ceske Budejovice (you know what Budvar - Budweiser is, don't you?). And when I hear from Dresden and other German towns on the river Elbe I am afraid, this time we will not be saved by our rich German friends either. Many people here were surprised by excellent (almost socialist- like) improvization, masses of voluntary helpers and high degree of solidarity (apart from the idiots Michael described on the list). It will, however, be much harder, to return to normal life. When people have to realize which amounts of money are required for reconstruction of their homes, plants and all those parts of modern infrastructure that we have been used to. And when even social democratic government will not be able to pay that. Will they at least cancel the NATO summit in November? L.D., I am not so sure whether it is, as you write, "something that doesn't happen more than once a century". Serious scientists now claim that what we are witnessing these days is probably going to happen more often in near future and it is the price for disturbing ecological balance. And it has actually already happened in several parts of the planet. What is new are crowds of desoriented tourists in between and Charles Bridges as the pittoresque background of our global desaster. Thank you and all others for remembering and praying for us. Christof Lange ________________________________________________________________ Ceskobratrska cirkev evangelicka - Betlemska kaple na Zizkove Prokopova 4/216, 130 00 Praha 3, Czech Republic Tel. (00420-2) 22 78 06 73 / 22 78 20 02 http://www.volny.cz/cce.zizkov
