Hungarian villagers chat on a temporary dam during flooding along the Danube River in Kisoroszi, on June 7, 2013.
As water levels broke records in the west ahead of an expected peak on Monday, thousands of volunteers joined soldiers and emergency workers -- often crossing traditional social boundaries to make some unlikely alliances -- to roll up their sleeves and don rubber boots.
Students, boy scouts and sports clubs helped to make up and install more than two million sandbags stacked at 16 high-risk locations along the 760 kilometres (475 miles) of the raging Danube River rushing out of Germany and Austria on its way to the Black Sea.
"Hungarians come together at a time of emergency," said one grateful local as she watched workers heave sandbags onto a truck to be taken to a barrier in picturesque, 1.7-million-strong Budapest.
Around 3,000 volunteers, 6,000 emergency service personnel, and the entire Hungarian army have been mobilised across the country. More than 16,000 army, police and civil reservists were also on standby.
