Dams full, dikes fragile
The flood situation remains tense – Dresden declares alert level three
The floodwaters of the Elbe wash over a traffic sign on the Terrassenufer in Dresden. The people on the Elbe have to prepare for further rising water levels
© Sebastian Kahnert / DPA
The days of rainfall have consequences in many places: the floods are pushing dams to their limits and dangerously weakening dikes. Many people had to leave their homes on Christmas Day of all days. And the situation remains threatening.
Hundreds of people had to leave on Christmas holidays Floods leave their houses and apartments – and swelling watercourses and overflowing dams could force others to flee. Authorities in Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, among others, warned on Tuesday that the situation would remain tense in the next few days. The weather forecast offers some hope: According to the German Weather Service (DWD) forecast, there will be some rain in the northwest on Wednesday, otherwise it will remain dry with some major breaks.
Alert level three in Dresden
Dresden declared alert level 3 for the Elbe due to the flooding. The city announced on Tuesday evening that it is expected that the guideline value of alert level 2 at the Dresden-Augustus Bridge gauge will be exceeded between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. on Wednesday morning. The Dresden Environment Agency therefore decided to declare alert level 3 for the Elbe in Dresden on Tuesday evening. This is justified because, according to the forecasts, the guideline value of alert level 3 will undoubtedly be reached and a further increase is to be expected.
After days of continuous rain, the flood situation in many regions of Germany worsened over the holidays. In Saxony-Anhalt, around 180 residents of the town of Thürungen were asked on Tuesday to seek safety at the Kelbra reservoir and the Helme because of the threat of flooding. Elsewhere in the region, residents should prepare for possible evacuations. The extent of possible flooding is difficult to predict, said a spokeswoman for the Mansfeld-Südharz district.
Hundreds of people also had to leave their houses and apartments on Christmas holidays due to flooding in Rinteln in Lower Saxony and in Windehausen in Thuringia. As here, rivers overflowing their banks in other federal states transformed the surrounding area into large-scale water landscapes.
Flood all-clear in Windehausen
In Windehausen, Thuringia, the situation had eased significantly on Tuesday, a police spokesman said early on Wednesday morning. The water levels in Thuringia have largely decreased. Softened dams burst in Northeim in southern Lower Saxony and Uplengen in the Leer district. Helpers were on constant duty to secure the battered bulwarks with sandbags.
Christmas floods
Road closures, evacuations – the flood situation remains tense
While the situation began to ease regionally as the rains eased, other areas were still facing the most critical situation. The highest water levels of a flood wave on the Elbe were not expected until Wednesday. It was said that this was due to the melting snow and heavy rainfall in the Giant Mountains.