Flood evacuation - Residents of Windehausen can return
People in the town of Windehausen (Nordhausen district), which was flooded at Christmas, can return to their homes. He lifted the evacuation order in the morning, Heringen's mayor Matthias Marquardt (Left Party) told the German Press Agency on Thursday. Now that the power supply and sewage system were working again, the reasons for the evacuation no longer applied. A ban on entering the district of Heringen remains in place for non-residents. Meanwhile, the small village of Mönchpfiffel-Nikolausrieth (Kyffhäuserkreis) has become the new neuralgic point for the flood risk in Thuringia.
The inhabitants of Windehausen were initially told to continue using shuttle buses to return home, rather than their own vehicles. In the village of 500 inhabitants, the fire department was still busy pumping out water on Thursday. The locals would probably be able to catch up with their cars in the evening, said Marquardt. Windehausen was flooded at Christmas by meltwater from the River Zorge and groundwater that had been pushed upwards. On Christmas Day, according to the mayor, the water was around 70 centimetres high on the streets and has since drained away again. The village had been evacuated, 400 of the 500 inhabitants followed the call for voluntary evacuation.
Donation account for flood victims
According to the mayor, the extent of the damage to the houses caused by the flood varies. Some homeowners had only just installed a new heating system in the basement, which was now damaged. In one agricultural business, water had penetrated a warehouse containing crops. 20 trucks had transported soaked grain to a drying plant. The town of Heringen has set up a donation account for the flood victims. The response to the appeal for donations has been great, said Marquardt.
The flood situation has calmed down across the country. On Thursday, the flood information center at the State Office for the Environment, Mining and Nature Conservation (TLUBN) still reported two river levels at which reporting level one applied. These were the Unstrut in Oldisleben and the Werra in Gerstungen. However, new heavy rainfall is expected in the southern Harz region from Friday afternoon, said authority spokesman Nils Fröhlich. This could again lead to increased river levels in the Zorge and Helme. In addition, water is also being released from the Kelbra reservoir in neighboring Saxony-Anhalt, which could increase the water level of the Helme in northern Thuringia.
Helme threatens small village - water diverted
The village of Mönchpfiffel-Nikolaurieth felt the effects of this on Thursday. According to a spokesperson for the Ministry of the Interior, the water from the Kelbra reservoir threatened to flood the Nikolausrieth district with around 30 houses. Emergency services had set up 6000 sandbags on the riverbank to prevent this. According to the information, the water was about ten centimeters below the edge of the bank. In the afternoon, the responsible authorities in both federal states decided to open the Helme dyke in Saxony-Anhalt in order to divert the water onto surrounding fields.
According to the TLUBN, the dyke crest will be removed over a length of five to ten meters. The water flowing through the culvert will then flow over the fields into a flood ditch in Kalbsrieth, Thuringia, said authority spokesman Fröhlich. The work should begin in the late afternoon. As the water level of the Helme is expected to remain high for the next few days, the drainage of the water will be permanently monitored.
The Kelbra reservoir near the border between Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia in the Kyffhäuser Mountains had filled up after unusually heavy rainfall over Christmas. The main purpose of the dam is to protect the Helme-Unstrut valley from flooding. Water is to be released from the dam system in a controlled manner.
In Thuringia, too, the level in dams is lowered in a controlled manner to make room for new precipitation. In consultation with the TLUBN, this concerns the Straußfurt retention basin, which is important for flood protection in the Unstrut region, and the Schönbrunn dam in the Thuringian Forest, said the operations manager of the Thuringian long-distance water supply, Hans-Dieter Linz, when asked.
Flood information center DWD forecast Thuringian long-distance water supply Message from the town of Heringen about donation account Post Maier on X to Mönchpfiffel-Nikolausrieth
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Source: www.stern.de
