The brown floods of the past few days are gradually receding – but in some places new trouble is already looming. The Bavarian Flood Intelligence Service (HND) expects that the rain forecast in the Alps will cause the water level in some of the Danube’s tributaries and on the Danube to rise again by Monday. However, according to information from Sunday, the experts are not expecting floods like those seen on the first weekend in June.
In Straubing and the districts of Deggendorf and Kelheim, the state of emergency was lifted over the weekend. Other municipalities and districts still consider it necessary. Things have been particularly precarious in Regensburg in recent days because the water has only receded very slowly. The city has been under a state of emergency since June 3rd.
The safety measures in Werftstrasse, which is particularly at risk from the floods, have now been completed, a city spokeswoman said on Saturday. The extent to which the street has been damaged still needs to be investigated. No further measures are planned for the time being. The flood protection elements will remain in place for the time being, despite the continuing fall in the water level of the Danube.
The water level at the Iron Bridge measuring point in Regensburg was around 2.70 meters on average on May 28th, after which the water level climbed continuously until the morning of June 5th to 6.17 meters. On Sunday afternoon, the HND reported 4.25 meters. By Monday, the water level is expected to fall below warning level 1. According to the experts’ data, during the last major flood on June 4th, 2013, exactly 6.82 meters were measured at the Iron Bridge in Regensburg, and on August 14th, 2002, it was 6.60 meters.
In the three-river city of Passau, a slight rise to 7.94 meters was recorded at the Ilzstadt/Danube measuring point on Sunday afternoon. Last Tuesday, the water level peaked at 9.72 meters; the normal level would be around 5.50 meters. The forecasts predicted a further rise in water levels for the night from Monday to Tuesday. “For this reason, individual areas that are currently free of water cannot yet be opened to traffic,” the city announced on Sunday.
In many recently flooded areas, a lot of clean-up work was carried out over the weekend. “In several places, initial demolition work has already started. The water levels along the Danube are still high, however,” said the local head of operations for the Kelheim district, Nikolaus Höfler. The water also continued to recede in Upper Bavaria. However, the state of emergency in the Pfaffenhofen district will be maintained, the district office announced. The focus is on clean-up work, for example in Baar-Ebenhausen or Lindach. The emergency services are continuing to pump out cellars.
The clean-up work has entered another strenuous phase, said the district administrator of the Unterallgäu district, Alexander Eder (Free Voters), to Bavarian Radio. The 1,100 tonnes of bulky waste initially blocked the local waste incineration plant.
The waste incineration plant in Ingolstadt is also overloaded due to the large amount of waste generated by the flooding in the region. As the district office of Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm announced, the acceptance of waste at the recycling centers in Pfaffenhofen has therefore had to be stopped. It is expected that waste will be accepted again from Monday, but only to a limited extent.
The German Life Saving Association (DLRG) has meanwhile ended its large-scale operation in the Bavarian flood areas. “The rescue workers have brought people to safety from houses and places that were surrounded by floodwaters,” the aid organization announced on Sunday. Among them was a very elderly person who is constantly dependent on oxygen.