Wednesday, December 27, 2023, 08:46
The incessant storms and rains that have been affecting Germany for a week, as well as the melting of snow in the mountains in several regions during the Christmas festivities, are causing serious flooding in different federal states in the north and east of the country, which have forced the evacuation of populations and They threaten to flood large cities such as Braunschweig in Lower Saxony or Dresden in Saxony. The 180 inhabitants of the small town of Thürungen in the state of Saxony-Anhalt had to be evacuated at Christmas due to the threat of overflowing and even bursting of the Kelbra dam and the Helma river, while citizens of other nearby towns have been called to prepare for an eventual forced abandonment of their homes and transfer to a safe place.
Also in the Lower Saxon town of Rinteln and in Windehausen, in Saxony, hundreds of people had to be evacuated and spent Christmas outside their homes due to the threat of water. Although in Windehausen the alarm had been lowered last night in other places it reached critical levels, such as in Northeim, in the south of Lower Saxony, where several dams burst after being undermined by the effect of flooding rivers, despite the incessant work of firefighters and volunteers from the Technical Emergency Service (THW) who tried unsuccessfully to reinforce the barriers with thousands of sandbags. THW specialists are the ones who have built hundreds of meters of mobile dikes made of synthetic material in Braunschweig to contain the flooding of the Oker and prevent the waters from ending up flooding the old part of the city.
In the baroque city of Dresden, the flooding of the Elbe, largely due to the melting of the Giant Mountains bordering the Czech Republic, has forced the suspension of river navigation. Experts estimate that it will not be until this Thursday when the waters of the Elbe will reach a level of up to 6.5 meters above normal as it passes through the historic capital of Saxony, where firefighters are working overtime to erect barriers with sandbags on the promenades. rivers and the streets that access the river. Already this Tuesday, the so-called second day of Christmas and a public holiday in Germany, the staff and animals of the Christmas Circus that traditionally performs in Dresden on these dates and which has been forced to suspend all its performances had to be evacuated and put to safety.
#Christmas #water #Germany #due #flooding #states