Preparing for the worst - residents in the Hungarian village of Mecser hope these sandbags will save the town from rising flood waters in the River Danube.<br/> <br />Some 600 residents and a few hundred volunteers worked to reinforce the riverbanks near the village on Saturday.<br/> <br />A state of emergency has been declared in Hungary with the worst situation in and around the capital Budapest.<br/> <br />Mescer is some 150 kilometers west of Budapest.<br/> <br />Some residents remained optimistic however.<br/> <br />(SOUNDBITE) (Hungarian) MECSER RESIDENT, ZSOLT NAGY, SAYING:<br/> <br />"This village was flooded completely in 1954, including the house where I was born. Now the level of water is almost the same as it was then, but the dams are in much better conditions, and we started defence on time, so I hope we will have success."<br/> <br />There were similar scenes in northern Germany where residents in the town of Magdeburg were also bracing themselves for the deluge.<br/> <br />Large parts of the east of the count
