This flood has turned out to be far, far worse than Michal imagined.

Michal has lost 80% of his library

When he and his family left their apartment in Karlin on Tuesday last week, they were expecting to return within days.

Michal was hoping against hope that his collection of 2,000 or 3,000 books would survive.

Six days later, he has been allowed to see inside his home for only 20 minutes, and has learned that his move back there could be indefinitely postponed.

Subsidence

When he opened the door, he was shocked by what he saw.

"It is a mess. Things have been scattered all over the floor, and everything is covered in mud," he says.

Mud: Karlin is a mess, says Michal

"We had 180 centimetres (six feet) of water, so only a small number of books above that level have survived."

And that's not all. Three buildings in Karlin collapsed because of the flood, and two police cars have sunk into holes that opened up in the street.

It's quite possible that other buildings will now be declared unsafe, and that nobody will be allowed home permanently until geological tests have been carried out.

Emptiness

If buildings do need to have their foundations reinforced, the work could take a year or more to complete, Michal believes.

There is a terrible smell from the market, where meat and milk and other goods are rotting

Michal Ruzicka

Karlin was home to 20,000 people until last week, but is now cordoned off by police and soldiers.

Every day, angry residents gather at the police lines, pleading to be allowed back to their flats.

Some, who were moved into schools immediately after the evacuation, are now living in students' halls of residence. Michal is still with his parents.

"The district is completely empty," says Michal, desribing how he found it during his brief visit on Saturday.

Metro flooded

"There is almost no noise, but there is a terrible smell from the market, where meat and milk and other goods are rotting."

Michal has been told he may be allowed home again briefly this Friday, but he will have to travel on foot, because cars are barred from streets liable to subsidence.

The metro is not an option, because it too is flooded. Some 10 stations are closed.

Michal will rescue some documents, and some pictures and prints, which he carefully stored the night before the flood.

Whatever fate awaits his neighbours, it will be a long time before Michal lives in his Karlin apartment again.

In less than a month he and his family will be leaving Prague to spend a year in London - and there is next to no chance of moving back in before then.