AUGUST 18, 2002
F1 blind to flood threat
Motor racing people are famously blinkered when it comes to what is happening in the real world and on Saturday in Budapest all eyes were on the Hungaroring rather than on the Danube river which was rising with each passing hour.
"Fortunately our forefathers were wise enough to plan and build these banks in very good quality in the second half of the 19th century," Demszky told the Reuters newsagency. The defenses are built to withstand 10m of water. The river is currently at 8.2m and rising. The river is estimated to peak at 8.75m late tonight.
Roads alongside the river have already been flooded causing diversions and big traffic jams in the city but the main areas of the flat Pest section of the city) are not expected to flood if the river banks hold.