DThe flood situation remains critical in some regions due to recent heavy rainfall. In Altenglan in the Kusel district of Rhineland-Palatinate, people had to leave their houses on Tuesday evening due to the risk of flooding. Due to the rising water in the area of the rain retention basin, there is an acute risk of the dam in the area of the Patersbach district being overflowed, the Kusel district announced. “Residents will be asked to leave their houses immediately.” People can stay in the Altenglan multi-purpose hall.
In Lower Saxony, which was particularly affected, the authorities expected rising water levels on the Aller, Weser, Leine and Lower Ems on Tuesday. “This concerns us very much,” Lower Saxony’s Interior Minister Daniela Behrens told NDR. The burden on the more than 100,000 emergency services is high. The SPD politician also assumes further evacuations. Six districts in Lower Saxony have identified a so-called exceptional situation due to the flooding.
Low mountain ranges particularly affected by precipitation
The German Weather Service (DWD) expected continuous rain in areas on Tuesday with several dozen liters of rain per square meter within 24 hours and continued rainy weather until Thursday. The low mountain ranges such as the Upper Harz are particularly affected by the precipitation. According to forecasts, up to a hundred liters of rain could fall there by Thursday. Afterwards there is a relaxation.
The emergency services are particularly concerned about the stability of many weakened dikes. In order to create storage space for further rainfall, the dams have released a lot of water. This also applies to the particularly polluted Kelbra dam in the south of Saxony-Anhalt, which absorbs water from the Harz and is currently allowing significantly more water to flow into the Helme River. There are considerations in the region about deepening the dike breach in the Thuringian town of Mönchpfiffel-Nikolausrieth a second time, which was enlarged to a width of 45 meters in recent days.
In the flood area on the state border of Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia, compulsory schooling will also be suspended in some places. In Kelbra, Roßla and Wallhausen, schools will remain closed on Thursday and Friday, the Mansfeld-Südharz district announced on Tuesday evening. Emergency care will be set up. The Oberröblingen primary school will remain open, only the students from Edersleben are exempt from compulsory school attendance.
There was one death in connection with the flood in Hanover. On New Year's Day, a 70-year-old woman got caught in the leash. Passers-by saw the woman floating in the floodwaters of the river in the afternoon. The fire brigade and DLRG acted quickly and drove to strategically important points downstream due to the high current speed. The emergency services managed to rescue the woman alive by boat after she had drifted several kilometers in the raging waters. The elderly woman was taken to hospital in life-threatening condition, but later died there.
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