May 22, 2010JPEG taken by astronauts onboard the International Space Station shows widespread flooding along the Vistula River in southeastern Poland the Vistula originates on the western slopes of the mountain Barania Góra in the Carpathian Mountains in southern Poland The river winds its way northward for 1,047 kilometers (651 miles) through major cities such as Krakow and Warsaw Several towns have been completely or partially inundated including Gorzyce and Trześń in addition to large numbers of agricultural fields (normally green as visible at image top and bottom right) While the flooding illustrated here is extensive it represents but a small “snapshot” of conditions that have developed in Eastern Europe over the past one to two weeks Spring flooding of rivers is not an uncommon occurrence in Poland but this event has been described as the most serious flood in several decades with the first records of local embankments for flood control dating from the thirteenth century 370 rivers in Poland (including the Vistula) had been completely or partly embanked along a total length of 9,028 kilometers (5,610 miles) for some degree of flood mitigation heavy rains caused high waters in the Vistula River Hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated as the river level rose and broke through waterlogged dikes and embankments The flood surge then moved northward through Warsaw View this area in EO Explorer this astronaut photograph shows flooding along the Vistula River near the towns of Gorzyce Severe flooding raised Poland’s rivers to their highest levels in over a century in May 2010 Rivers swelled from the torrential rains of Hurricane Florence Relentless rains are to blame for ongoing flooding in northeastern China Louisiana prepared for the arrival of flood water that stemmed from heavy rains that fell far upriver in Missouri and Illinois raised rivers to their highest stages in nearly 20 years.