Karben's twin town Krnov is under water

Neue Frankfurter Presse Karben's twin town Krnov is under water Status: September 16, 2024, 8:33 p.m. The town of Karben is exploring how it can help its twin town Krnov in the Czech Republic, which has been severely affected by the floods. Unfortunately, there has been no contact for some time. Karben/Krnov (dpa/red). Heavy rain is flooding entire areas in the Czech Republic, Poland and Austria. The flood situation is particularly dramatic in the Czech town of Krnov (Jägerndorf), which was almost completely flooded on Sunday. According to the CTK agency, deputy mayor Miroslav Binar said the situation was worse than during the 1997 flood disaster. The Opava and Opavice rivers converge in the small town, which has 23,000 inhabitants and is located around 240 kilometers east of Prague. Helicopters were deployed to rescue people in distress from the air. Krnov has been Karben's twin town since 1993. Krnov "is the largest town in the Bruntal district. The town is surrounded by partly wooded hills, wide valleys, fields and meadows," says the Karben town website. A few years ago, the chairwoman of the Karben town twinning association told this newspaper that, unfortunately, contacts with Krnov and Luisenthal in Thuringia had almost died down. Continued strong solidarity The town of Karben was very sympathetic to the news that its twin town Krnov had been hit hard by the current flood disaster. "Unfortunately, there has been no contact between the city of Karben and our twin city in eastern Czech Republic for some time. The last attempts by our twin city association about ten years ago unfortunately came to nothing," says city spokesman Dominik Rinkart. "Nevertheless, we at the town hall feel a great connection to our twin city. Many older people in Karben have a direct or indirect connection to Krnov and the Czech part of Silesia, as they or relatives once came to Karben as refugees." Now an attempt is being made to urgently seek dialogue with the twin city to offer help, Rinkart announces. "We will then discuss together how we can best help. One possibility would be to set up a donations account. In addition, our volunteer fire department offered its help locally without hesitation." The purpose of twin city partnerships is to foster cultural exchange between people from different countries. Rinkart explains: "Even though this care with the city of Krnov has somewhat waned in recent years, we still feel very connected to this mission, especially in difficult times."