Flood situation eases slightly - but water levels still rising in some places
"Where cities have direct access to water, we need additional investment in technical flood protection such as dykes and retention basins," said Jan-Niclas Gesenhues, environmental policy spokesperson for the Green parliamentary group in the Bundestag, in Wednesday's edition of the Düsseldorfer Rheinische Post newspaper. "From now on, flood prevention and climate adaptation must be taken into account in all planning."
In Germany, too, "floods and inundations are becoming more frequent and more severe", said the Green politician. "So far, we are not sufficiently prepared for such consequences of the climate crisis." Nature itself and healthy floodplains would be the best way to help.
The flood forecasting center for Lower Saxony announced that the situation remains very tense and is worsening locally. Numerous water levels, especially in the south of the federal state, are already above the highest reporting level 3, and levels could still rise in some places, especially on the Middle Weser. The water is also still rising on the lower reaches of the Aller, Leine and Oker rivers.
In Sandkrug, a district of the municipality of Hatten, a residential area was evacuated on Tuesday. The water level peaked on Wednesday. However, the water was only draining slowly, according to the Oldenburg district fire department. The residents of the evacuated residential area will not be able to return to their homes for at least three days.
In Bremen, some properties were under water. In the Borgfeld district, the water will remain for a few more days, a fire department spokesman told ARD. 54 households there are without power for the time being.
The city of Braunschweig announced that the situation had stabilized. It is to be expected "that the flood levels will remain at the current level for a few more days." The Oker dam in the Harz Mountains had reached its maximum capacity on Tuesday, which is why more water was released into the Oker. Braunschweig had therefore initially feared a further rise in water levels.
The all-clear was also given cautiously in Saxony. The city of Dresden had already declared an alert level 3 of four for the Elbe on Tuesday as a precautionary measure. However, the guideline value of six meters had not yet been reached by Wednesday afternoon, according to the State Flood Centre. It is expected that the level will be slightly exceeded on Thursday morning, as well as on Thursday afternoon in Riesa. The Dresden fire department protected the city with sandbags and set up an operations control center. Flood gates were also set up to protect the city.
The flood information center in Thuringia announced that the situation had "eased considerably". In Saxony-Anhalt, it was announced that the Pretzien weir would probably be opened on Thursday morning. It has been protecting the Magdeburg region from the waters of the Elbe for almost 150 years.
The weather service expected rain to spread first to the north and later to the south-east during the night to Thursday, reaching the Palatinate and Lusatia by Thursday morning. On Thursday, rain is expected to fall intermittently in the Palatinate and Baden as far as Saxony and Franconia.
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Source: www.stern.de
