Mike Hanna: Prague assessing flood damage

CNN's Mike Hanna

PRAGUE, Czech Republic (CNN) -- Record flooding is creating havoc in Central Europe where the death toll from the natural disaster is approaching 100.

CNN Correspondent Mike Hanna filed the following report from the flood-ravaged Czech capital of Prague, where tens of thousands of residents have been evacuated:

HANNA: The sun has come out. It does appear to be a normal, late-summer day in Prague -- normal that is apart from the floodwaters still rushing through the city. But the good news is these floodwaters have dropped; they have reached their peak within the last 24 hours, and now gradually the Vltava River is beginning to subside.

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The water has dropped between one and a half to 2 meters -- that is some 7 to 11 feet -- within the last 24 hours.

All of the historic buildings lining the Vltava River have been damaged to a greater or lesser degree, and authorities are now attempting to ascertain exactly how much damage has been caused.

The mayor of the city says that people may be able to move back into their homes in the next one to three days. That is some people. That is areas that have been declared safe. But in other areas, says the mayor, it could be up to two to three weeks before people are able to return home.

Well over 50,000 people were evacuated from their homes before the flood reached its height. [There's ] no current information yet as to exactly when they are going to be able to go back, and no current word yet as to exactly what the extent of the damage from these floodwaters has been.

CNN: The Charles Bridge. They've actually set up cranes on top of it to help clear out the debris to make sure there's no structural damage. Has that been effective?

And also, I understand there's a museum that had about $40 million worth of artwork in the lower levels of that museum. How much and do we know how much of that has been saved?

HANNA: Yes, well, the emergency measures that went into place have, to a degree, been effective. As you mention, when that river was really pouring down, there were cranes on some of the bridges. And the cranes would lift out heavy objects as they came under the bridge to stop them from shattering into the arches of the bridge. This was done on a regular basis throughout.

Also, flood embankments were built on the sides of the river; sandbags were laid down, particularly in those buildings that you referred to.

For example, the National Theatre just up the river here suffered a great deal of flood damage. However, the artifacts that were in its bottom were able to be moved to higher levels. So no real damage there, apart from damage to the building.

And it's this structural damage [that] engineers are trying to ascertain because that is the question. How extensive has the damage been at the very base of these historic buildings and of these historic streets all around?