Caffrey's Irish Pub on Prague's old town square should have been bustling with customers yesterday evening.
Instead it stood empty, its doors and walls blocked by dozens of sandbags put there by the pub's owner, Mr Frank Haughton.
"I've been watching television all day, but things aren't as bad as the news channels are making out," he told The Irish Times.
Nevertheless, the Czech authorities are taking no chances, as the churning waters of the city's River Vltava continued to rise yesterday.
Czech authorities postponed until this morning plans to evacuate streets near the town square.
Buildings just metres from the the river, such as the Intercontinental Hotel, were only slightly flooded.
"I was very impressed by the speed of the emergency operations," said Mr Haughton, owner of a number of Irish pubs in the city.
Within hours, sand and sandbags were available on the town square, with no shortage of volunteers to fill them.
"There were also lots of buses to bring evacuated people to higher ground," he said. "But the evacuation message hasn't reached thousands of tourists."
By yesterday afternoon the town square was filled with forlorn visitors sitting on their suitcases and backpacks. "We've been evacuated from our hotel but we have three days before our flight leaves. Where do we go now?" asked one American woman.
Fears of looting of empty houses and shops was unfounded, according to Mr Haughton. "I feel a real sense of community for the first time after nine years here."
Meanwhile, the German Environment Minister, Mr Juergen Trittin, alarmed listeners with doomsday predictions on a Berlin radio station yesterday.
"Today we are carrying the can for 100 years of industrialisation," he said, adding that he would demand further reductions in greenhouse gas emissions at the upcoming Johannesburg climate summit.
