Soldiers and firefighters used sandbags to reinforce river embankments and delivered food and drinking water to cut-off communities as the worst flooding in years moved Tuesday across a broad swath of Central Europe,

Soldiers have dropped sandbags from military helicopters to reinforce river embankments and evacuated residents as the worst flooding in years spreads across Central Europe, taking lives and destroying homes.

Based on estimates from local officials, the damage to infrastructure could reach a combined $10 billion in these two countries alone. Poland's finance minister said the $5.6 billion allotted from EU funds would cover some, but not all of the costs to recover from the floods.

Soldiers and residents in southwestern Poland are laying sandbags near swollen rivers around the city of Wroclaw to protect homes and businesses after days of flooding across Central Europe.

STORY: Bursting their banks and inundating towns - more rivers across central Europe have been unable to deal with a deadly deluge of heavy rain from the worst flooding in at least two decades.And on Monday Poland's government declared a disaster in affected areas and said that it had set aside $260 million to help victims.

By Kuba Stezycki, Janis Laizans and Radovan Stoklasa WROCLAW, Poland/OSTRAVA, Czech Republic (Reuters) -Residents and emergency workers raced to secure river banks in the historic Polish city of Wroclaw on Tuesday,

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Massive floods pounded Central Europe on Monday, killing four more people in Poland and one in the Czech Republic.

Watch a view of the scene at the swollen Oder River in Wroclaw on Thursday 19 September as severe flooding causes devastation in Poland. Central Europe is experiencing the worst floods in at least two decades,