Swelling rivers and rising ground waters have flooded homes, land and roads as weeks of rain continued into Friday, leaving people in shelters, livestock drowned, and the transportation network in tatters.

The Danube is rapidly rising, forcing Budapest police to close down two highways running along the riverbanks. Some 80 roads have been closed elsewhere in the country, twelve of them major thoroughfares, either because they are flooded or because the rain has washed away their foundations and caused the pavement to crack and sink. Detours are proving tricky to navigate because of potholes, also washed out by the rain.

The Bodva, normally a peaceful little river that flows into Hungary from the north, has been raising havoc in the northeast. Nearly 180 families in the town of Edeleny, which has a population of about 10,000, were evacuated, many in rowboats, as the river has been sweeping away the sandbags almost as fast as they can be put in place. Helicopter teams have been called in to help with the sandbagging.

In nearby Sendro, the Bodva has surpassed the historical high- water mark in the town and has forced some 500 people to evacuate. Two homes there have already collapsed and more are expected to follow.

Mail services have been halted in much of the northeast. At Edeleny, the central post office has been surrounded by the floodwater, and services were suspended.

The railroads are battling waterlogged soil that has loosened up crossties and caused some trees to fall down onto the tracks. However, international train services have so far been unaffected.

Cross-border road traffic was partially affected, as border crossings in the northeast have been closed to trucks but remain open to cars.