Flooded districts, evacuated people and animals: the flooding continues in eastern and northern Germany. Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister Weil speaks of an “unprecedented extent”. Emergency services criticize onlookers.
The flood situation remains threatening in parts of northern and eastern Germany. In Lower Saxony, according to Prime Minister Stephan Weil, things are more tense than ever. “We have never had a flood of this magnitude before,” said the SPD politician in a statement. “Experts have long been warning that the increasingly frequent extreme weather events are linked to climate change,” said Weil. In the future, commitment to flood prevention must be further increased and CO2 emissions must urgently be further reduced.
According to Weil, more than 100,000 people in the state are working to combat the floods. “The images are similar and yet in many places they are frightening: Huge masses of water where otherwise comparatively small rivers meander through the landscape, dikes reinforced with sandbags, pumps in continuous operation.” Several federal states are helping with sandbags and fire departments.
In Lower Saxony, a so-called extraordinary event had been detected in six districts and the city of Oldenburg by the afternoon, said a spokesman for the Ministry of the Interior – including in Verden an der Aller. For example, by detecting an extraordinary event, counties can more easily access emergency personnel.
Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister visited Hodenhagen an der Aller.
Water pushed into residential areas
The first animals were evacuated from the Serengeti Park in Hodenhagen, Lower Saxony. Water got into some of the stables on the jungle safari with more than 200 monkeys, a spokeswoman said. In addition to lemurs and ruffed lemurs, prairie dogs and meerkats also had to leave their enclosures and are now housed elsewhere on the site north of Hanover.
Reported from Verden an der Aller ARD correspondent Sophie Mühlmann of softened soils. The water is rising “much, much faster” than the fire department expected. It is being pushed into residential streets near the banks and some houses are being washed out. Despite the use of sandbags, the walls and the ground were soaked.
Numerous water levels were above the highest reporting level – especially in the southern part of the state, as the State Office for Water Management, Coasts and Nature Conservation (NLWKN) announced. In Drakenburg near Nienburg an der Weser, the historical water level of 834 centimeters from 1981 was reportedly exceeded. The peak is expected there that night, further downstream towards Bremen only on Saturday night.
Onlookers, theft and arguments
The flood situation in Lilienthal north of Bremen also remains tense. Dikes have been severely damaged in several places in the community in recent days. The all-clear has now been given because of the feared dike breach. In Meppen, numerous onlookers hindered the work of the fire brigade and the Technical Relief Agency (THW). Fire department spokesman Sven Lammers criticized flood tourism as endangering operations.
The fire departments also have to contend with other problems: their resources are being stolen. “Sandbags that are installed on dikes are taken away by residents because they themselves do not have sandbags to protect their houses,” said the President of the German Fire Brigade Association, Karl-Heinz Banse. There are insults and discussions with those affected as to why water is pumped out first in certain streets. “Why does my neighbor have the fire department in the basement before me? There are lots and lots of arguments,” said Banse.
The 150-year-old Pretziener Weir was last opened ten years ago.
Weir opened in the Magdeburg area
To defuse the situation in the Magdeburg area, the state office for flood protection opened the approximately 135 meter long Pretziener weir on Thursday. This means that around a third of the Elbe’s water is now channeled past the cities of Magdeburg and Schönebeck through a canal before flowing back into the Elbe.
The water levels in Saxony’s rivers are now falling again – with one exception. The flood waters of the Elbe were still rising slowly in Saxony. A water level of 5.92 meters was measured in Dresden in the early afternoon. That was still just below the six meter mark at which the second highest alert level would apply. The state flood control center expected that this limit would be exceeded in the morning – but only very slightly at a maximum of 6.01 meters. A water level of two meters is usual in the Elbe in the state capital.
Water had already been released from the Kelbra dam in Saxony-Anhalt. As a result, the water level of the Helme River rose and, according to authorities, is now endangering a district in the Kyffhäuser district in Thuringia. According to the Interior Ministry, emergency services are setting up sandbags on the river bank to prevent the water from overflowing into the small town with around 30 houses. In the afternoon, the responsible authorities in both federal states decided to specifically open the Helme dike in Saxony-Anhalt in order to drain the water into surrounding fields.
Flooding after continuous rain
Land under in many parts of Germany
Return to Windehausen possible
The residents of the town of Windehausen in Thuringia, which was evacuated due to flooding, can now return to their homes. Mayor Matthias Marquardt said he lifted the evacuation order in the morning. After the power supply and wastewater disposal were working again, the reasons for the evacuation no longer existed.
Windehausen was flooded at Christmas by meltwater from the Zorge River and groundwater that had been pushed upwards. According to the mayor, the water was around 70 centimeters high on the streets on the first holiday. 400 of the 500 residents followed the call to voluntarily evacuate.
There are still no signs of a complete easing of the flood situation. According to meteorologist Marcel Schmid from the German Weather Service (DWD), not as much rain is expected in the next few days as around Christmas. “However, every drop is actually one too many.” It could always rain on Friday – especially in the area around Harz, Bergisches Land, Sauerland and Siegerland.