Floods
Situation in Lower Saxony remains “enormously critical” – Scholz wants to visit flood areas in Saxony-Anhalt
Chancellor Olaf Scholz on New Year’s Eve after his sightseeing flight in an Air Force helicopter over the flood areas in northern Lower Saxony. On Thursday he also wants to visit affected regions in Saxony-Anhalt.
© Arne von Brill/dpa
Chancellor Olaf Scholz wants to travel to a flood area again – this time to the Vorharz in the south of Saxony-Anhalt. But people in other areas of Germany are still struggling with masses of water.
The politicians in Oberröblingen, a district of Sangerhausen, want to find out about the flood situation together. A meeting is planned at the dike at the Helmebrücke, which is in danger of breaking – together with the district administrator of the Mansfeld-Südharz district, André Schröder.
Scholz wants to meet volunteers in flood areas
There should then be a discussion with the operations manager, the emergency services and the mayors of the affected municipalities. Afterwards, Scholz, Lemke and Haseloff want to drive to a sandbag filling plant in the town of Berga and talk to volunteers. They also want to comment on the situation there.
Shortly before the turn of the year, a disaster was declared in the Mansfeld-Südharz district. The Helme had overflowed its banks in places. Several places on the river are currently threatened.
Floods
Flooded streets, emergency dikes, constant rain warning: pictures from the flood areas
In other federal states, especially in Lower Saxony, the emergency services have been fighting against masses of water for days. Many water levels in Lower Saxony and parts of Bremen continue to show the highest reporting level. Although it is expected to remain largely dry on Thursday – after the continuous rain of the past few days, the situation is threatening to worsen in some places. The catchment areas of Aller, Leine and Oker as well as Hase and Hunte are affected.
“We are still in an extremely critical situation and we are fully concentrating on fighting the floods,” said Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD) on NDR television on Wednesday evening.
Agriculture is also affected by flooding
The special thing about the current situation is that there is widespread flooding on many rivers and places at the same time, said the head of the Ludwig Franzius Institute for Hydraulic, Estuarine and Coastal Engineering at the Leibniz University in Hanover, Torsten Schlurmann, to the German press. Agency. In addition, the situation has been going on for days. “We don’t see a rapidly draining flood wave on the rivers, but rather that the water is virtually standing still. Due to the long-term damming, there is now a risk that the dikes will reach their performance limits,” said Schlurmann.
The water also affects agriculture. According to the farmers’ association, almost every farmer in Lower Saxony is currently affected by flooding of their fields or damage caused by moisture.
Flood aid for Lower Saxony also comes from abroad: a French civil defense team wants to build a mobile dike near Winsen an der Aller on Thursday. Lower Saxony’s Interior Minister Daniela Behrens wants to get an idea of the structure on site.