Flood situation remains critical in places - evacuations in Lower Saxony
In Winsen an der Aller, 300 residents were evacuated on Wednesday evening due to the risk of flooding, according to the district of Celle. In two settlements, the water was up to half a meter high on the streets, which is why there was a risk of electric shocks. In Flotwedel, also located in the district of Celle, emergency services kept two villages "as free of water as possible" using high-performance pumps, it added.
According to the district, the helpers, who were massively supported by emergency services from other regions, had already installed more than 150,000 sandbags and a 1750-metre-long mobile dyke system. There were fears of a dyke breach and preparations had already been made to evacuate retirement homes.
In Lilienthal near Bremen, several streets in the area of a now completely soaked dyke were evacuated during the night, as the municipality announced on Thursday. Due to the current weather conditions, the situation is not expected to ease in the short term. The flood situation is expected to remain tense for a few more days, it added.
"The situation is critical, but stable," said Lower Saxony's head of government Stephan Weil (SPD) on Thursday following a visit to the flood area in the municipality of Hodenhagen. Although there is currently no significant relief along the rivers of Lower Saxony, there is also "no extreme further inflow". The pressure on the dykes is continuing for the time being. The Minister President added that more than 100,000 people were on flood duty throughout the state.
Emergency services also had to rescue people from the floods on several occasions. In Hanover, a 75-year-old cyclist fell on a flooded road and was swept into a forest, according to the fire department on Wednesday evening.
According to the report, the man was caught by the water of the Leine, which had burst its banks, and held on to a branch where he dialed the emergency number on his cell phone. Because emergency services were initially unable to locate him, the area in the Döhren district was searched with two drones. Specialists from the water rescue service wearing protective suits and safety lines pulled him out of the forest. According to the fire department, the cyclist had ignored a barrier.
In Lauenbrück, Lower Saxony, an 84-year-old car driver drove his car into the high water of the Wümme and got stuck there. A witness discovered the "obviously disoriented" senior citizen in his small car standing in knee-deep water on Wednesday afternoon, according to the police in Rotenburg an der Wümme on Thursday. Together with police officers called to help, he rescued the man. He was already severely hypothermic.
In addition to Lower Saxony, parts of Bremen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Thuringia, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt were also affected by flooding. Many emergency services from the fire department and other organizations such as the Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW) were deployed to secure dykes and pump out water.
Near Hamm in North Rhine-Westphalia, emergency services secured a dyke on the River Lippe with thousands of sandbags. The authorities were also on alert along the Elbe, Saale and Elster rivers in the federal states of Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt. According to the state's own dam administration, a floodplain forest near Leipzig was deliberately flooded to provide relief.
According to the Ministry of the Environment, the authorities in Saxony-Anhalt opened the Pretzien weir for the first time since the flood of the century in 2013 in order to relieve Magdeburg and Schönebeck from the Elbe flood. The weir diverts the water past the cities via a canal. Elsewhere, however, the situation eased, with water levels in Halle an der Saale falling in the meantime.
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Source: www.stern.de
