Despite the flood disaster in the east of the country, two days of elections for the Senate and regional assemblies began in the Czech Republic on Friday. New assemblies are being elected in 13 regions,

PRAGUE (AP) — Czechs took to the polls on Friday in a two-day vote for a third of the seats in Parliament’s upper house, the Senate, and to select their representatives in regional elections.

Recently, floods in the Czech Republic have claimed three lives, and now with two more fatalities reported this afternoon in Krnov, Bruntál, reports Globe24. The victims were found in a flooded apartment and a local creek,

Another night of torrential rains pounding Central Europe have forced massive evacuations in the hardest hit areas in the Czech Republic, where floods reached extreme levels.

The first villages were evacuated in the Czech Republic and Poland, and communities in Austria have been declared disaster areas. In Romania, at least four people died in the floods after heavy rainfall. Emergency forces in the Czech Republic and Poland, along with parts of Austria, have been preparing for severe weather since Friday.

By Albin Sybera Czechia braces for regional and Senate elections this weekend on September 20-21 just as the water levels from the huge floods which hit the wider Central European region are receding.