In September, southern Poland was hit by a flood on a scale comparable to the so-called flood of the millennium in 1997. Losses in the regions affected by the crisis are estimated at billions of PLN, and there were also fatalities. Our study shows that less than 2% of Poles (exactly 1.6%) were affected by the flood personally, and another 9% say that although their households were spared, the houses of people living in their area were flooded.

Has anyone in your area recently experienced flooding or flood damage?

The share of respondents declaring that people living in their area suffered from flooding is by far the highest in the Opole (53%) and Lower Silesia (47%) voivodeships, and lower, although still significant, in Silesia (21%) and Lubuskie (14%) voivodeships. Such declarations were also most common in small towns with up to 20,000 inhabitants (13%) and in medium-sized towns with up to 100,000 inhabitants (17%).

Has anyone in your area recently experienced flooding or flood damage?
Percentage of respondents declaring that people living in their area have suffered from flooding.

The vast majority of Poles (94%) positively assess the actions taken during the flood by services such as the Fire Department or the Territorial Defence Forces (71% even assessed them as very good). A significantly smaller, although still majority, percentage of respondents spoke positively about the help provided to flood victims by local authorities (59%). The lowest level of appreciation, but still majority, was towards the actions of the central authorities (55%).

How do you assess the actions taken during the flood by: