Water levels are slowly falling in flood areas. The dry winter weather allows residents and emergency services to breathe a sigh of relief. According to the authorities, there is not yet a complete all-clear.
The situation is easing more and more in the flood areas in Lower Saxony, Bremen and Saxony-Anhalt. But the authorities have not yet given the all-clear. However, the Lower Saxony authorities assumed that water levels in the rivers Aller, Leine, Oker, Hunte, Hase and Weser would continue to fall because no new rain or snow was forecast there for the coming days.
“The flood situation is easing significantly,” said a spokesman for the Environment Ministry in Hanover. However, there are still several water levels that are above the highest reporting level 3. In Lower Saxony, the responsible state office expected that the water levels in the catchment area of many rivers would not fall below the reporting levels until the end of the week or next week. The prolonged situation with significantly increased water levels will “last a few more days,” it said with regard to Aller, Leine and Oker.
School operations should resume without restrictions expire
In Saxony-Anhalt, normality is gradually returning to the affected area in the south of the country. Because there are sufficient reserves, sandbag filling can be stopped and the work of helpers from other parts of the country can be gradually reduced, said the district administrator of the Mansfeld-Südharz district, André Schröder. According to the CDU politician, school operations should also run again largely without restrictions throughout the district on Thursday.
Shortly before the end of the year, the Helme River overflowed its banks in places. The district then declared a disaster and also asked the Bundeswehr for help. Around 200 temporary and professional soldiers have been deployed on site since last Friday. “The situation must also be monitored in the coming days,” said Schröder.
More efforts required for better protection
Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt are currently the worst affected by floods, while the situation has eased in other countries. The General Association of the German Insurance Industry called for more protective measures. “States and municipalities have major deficits when it comes to area and building planning as well as prevention. There has been too little investment here for decades,” said Managing Director Jörg Asmussen.
According to the Ministry of Economic Affairs there, 65 roads are still closed due to flooding in Lower Saxony alone. These should explicitly still not be used, even if the roads might now look passable again.
Floods in England and France
Other European countries such as France were also affected by floods. In England, some regions are still struggling with the consequences of flooding. People were urged to continue to be careful there.
Long, heavy rain around the turn of the year caused many rivers in Germany to swell and overflow their banks. Lower Saxony was particularly affected, with buildings in several towns and communities also affected. Some residents were brought to safety.
Thousands of emergency services secured the soggy dikes and pumped out the water. Recently the weather improved. According to the German Weather Service, Germany is still under the influence of dry and cold air.