Weather
Danger of flooding: town in Thuringia evacuated
Filled sandbags are brought to the breaking points with a human chain. photo
© Lars Penning/dpa
Continuous rain has filled rivers and streams in many areas of Germany. Dikes have been weakened and some have broken, and thousands of helpers are on constant duty over Christmas.
Constant rain and soggy ground continue to cause problems Danger of flooding in many areas of Germany. The German Weather Service (DWD) continues to warn of continuous rain in several regions.
The town of Windehausen (Nordhausen district) in northern Thuringia was particularly badly affected. The flood situation there became so severe that on Christmas Day it was necessary to completely evacuate the district of Heringen, which has almost 500 inhabitants. “The situation is very threatening, I have never seen a picture like this in the Goldene Aue,” said the mayor of the city of Heringen, Matthias Marquardt (left), to the German Press Agency.
The water was up to a meter high in some places. The mayor described the critical situation as there was no electricity, no access and no landline telephony. In addition, the toilets no longer worked due to the lack of drains. The residents were therefore urgently advised to leave their homes. However, the mayor emphasized that people would not be taken from their homes by police force.
The flood also caused tension in Lower Saxony. In the Leer district, hundreds of emergency services fought against the masses of water on Tuesday night. In the municipality of Uplengen, the dike of the Hollener Ehe was broken in two places and was also weakened over a length of almost 500 meters, said district fire brigade spokesman Dominik Janßen. 450 emergency services and hundreds of volunteers were able to stabilize the dike with sandbags.
In the municipality of Hatten in the Oldenburg district, a dike also became unstable. The residents of two streets had to be evacuated, the fire department announced on Tuesday night. It was initially not known how many people were affected. The stability of the dike should be assessed again on Tuesday morning. Until then, the dike should be stabilized with sandbags. A dike breach is still considered unlikely.
The authorities warned of a further worsening of the flood situation in the Oker and Innerste river areas. Since further rain is forecast in the Harz until Tuesday morning, a third wave of flooding is expected in the tributaries to the dams. As a result, the Harz dams would fill up so much that more water would probably have to be drained off and this would then lead to a significant worsening of the flood situation, it said in a statement.
Warning of continuous rain and storm surges
The German Weather Service predicted further continuous rain in several regions, especially from the western low mountain ranges to the Harz, according to a DWD severe weather warning issued late on Monday evening. It will also be stormy in some places. During the night there were expected to be strong, stormy gusts in the northwest, which extended northward during the day. Flooding is expected along streams and rivers. In addition to floods, landslides could also occur. The majority of the country remains under the influence of mild and very humid air masses.
The Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH) warned of storm surges in the Weser area and on the North Sea coast of Lower Saxony. Specifically, Bremen, Bremerhaven, Elsfleth, Brake and Rechtenfleth on the Weser and Wilhelmshaven on the North Sea were mentioned.
The flood situation continued to be tense in parts of Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia.
Rail traffic on the route between Hanover and Magdeburg is expected to be affected until Wednesday (December 27th). IC trains would be rerouted in both directions and would be delayed by around 30 minutes, Deutsche Bahn announced on its website. The background is therefore track erosion on the route from Magdeburg to Helmstedt.