Eastern storm pushes the Baltic Sea water strongly onto land and causes the first floods. A severe storm surge is expected in the north in the afternoon and evening.
The waves of the Baltic Sea are thundering violently against the port facilities, streets are flooded with water, heavy branches are falling onto cars and tracks – the storm over the Baltic Sea is already having a noticeable impact on Friday and is causing initial damage on land. And this despite the fact that the flood has not yet reached the expected peak level.
The Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency does not expect the peak of the severe storm surge for the Bay of Kiel and Lübeck until Friday afternoon and evening. In the Flensburg Fjord, water levels can rise up to 2.00 meters above mean high water, the office announced on its website. This is expected to be the highest water level there in more than 100 years.
The fire brigade and police are often in action
In the morning and midday, the number of operations by the fire departments is initially clear: “We have not had any flood-related operations so far and at the moment we have to go on operations, especially because of the storm,” said a spokeswoman for the fire department to the dpa.
In the afternoon the Kiel line will be closed to traffic for safety reasons. In Kiel-Schilksee, several beach chairs were pulled into the water on Thursday afternoon. “The water is unusually high there. Around 150 beach chairs were recovered there,” said a police spokeswoman.
In Flensburg, too, the situation was initially manageable, as a police spokeswoman said. “The water is coming, it has already gotten very far, it is already at the door.” In the Schleswig-Flensburg district, around 30,000 sandbags have already been distributed to the affected offices and communities, and a further 40,000 are available.
In the Bay of Lübeck the water had already overflowed its banks in many places by midday. In addition, unsecured objects and falling trees partially blocked the roads in Lübeck and the Ostholstein district. Police and fire departments towed vehicles out of the danger area and closed off streets.
On Fehmarn on Friday, the volunteer sea rescuers from the German Society for the Rescue of Shipwrecked People came to the aid of ten vacationers and a dog who were surprised by the storm on their houseboats. They had to leave the floating accommodation and were brought ashore.
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania was largely spared
In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the flood is expected to reach the level of a severe storm surge at most near the Bay of Lübeck. However, the responsible state authorities expect little damage from the current flood due to coastal protection. Significant flooding could only occur in isolated cases in the lagoon waters, i.e. the bays connected to the Baltic Sea.
Because of the storm, school management in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania was able to decide for themselves whether afternoon classes should take place on Friday. The Rügenbrücken Marathon in Stralsund planned for Saturday has been canceled for safety reasons due to the storm.
The Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW) is also prepared for numerous operations due to a severe storm surge on the Baltic Sea coast. “We are monitoring the situation and are ready to provide assistance with our diverse options during and after the storm surge,” said THW President Sabine Lackner.
Storm surges in the Baltic Sea in recent years
The Baltic Sea coast is repeatedly hit by devastating storm surges. Storm surges are caused by strong winds that push water towards the coast. In January 2017, water levels of up to 1.83 meters were measured, and parts of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Schleswig-Holstein were destroyed. A similar storm surge with water levels of more than 1.7 meters occurred in November 2006. The authorities at the time estimated the damage at several million euros. Even higher levels of almost two meters above normal were measured during the storm surge in February 2002. Places from the North Sea island of Borkum to Greifswald were devastated.
Around 275 people died in the worst storm surge on the southwestern Baltic Sea coast in 1872. Numerous places on the Danish and German coast were affected. The island of Usedom was torn in two. The water was up to 2.80 meters above normal.
The weather service expects hurricane-force gusts until after midnight
The German Weather Service (DWD) assumes that the storm over the Baltic Sea will reach its peak on Friday afternoon and slowly subside after midnight. “Gale force gusts are possible on the Baltic Sea coast and the islands until around 2 a.m.,” said DWD meteorologist Anne Wiese to the dpa in Hamburg. Temperatures of eight to ten degrees are expected.
Ferries remain on land in the North and Baltic Seas
The same wind that pushes the water onto land in the Baltic Sea pushes the water away in the North Sea, resulting in extremely low water levels. This also had an impact on shipping traffic on Friday morning. Numerous ferries to the North and East Frisian Islands have been canceled. Some ferries should also remain in port on Saturday.
“It’s extreme here at the moment with the wind and the weather. You don’t have that often,” said operations manager Nick Obert from the Wyker Dampfschiffs-Reederei about the extremely low water. “This is very unusual. Where there would otherwise be a small sandbank, there is now a huge sandbank. You can see significantly more sand and silt than usual.”
Ferries also temporarily stopped serving in the Baltic Sea. In Travemünde, the ferry to Priwall no longer ran in some cases, and in Kiel the ferry line between the train station bridge in the city center and Laboe was discontinued. The storm over the Baltic Sea also temporarily stopped German-Danish ferry traffic on the Puttgarden-Rødby and Rostock-Gedser routes.
Restrictions also on rail and in the air
Around one in ten flights at Copenhagen Airport were canceled on Friday due to the storm over the Baltic Sea. And because of a fallen tree on the route between Neumünster and Brokstedt, regional traffic between Hamburg and Kiel was partially stopped.