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Tense flood situation: Reporting level 3 partly exceeded

After copious amounts of rain, many rivers and streams in Hesse are full to the brim or have burst their banks - and the German Weather Service continues to warn of persistent rain in some places.

Heavy rain pelting down on a road during a thunderstorm. Photo.aussiedlerbote.de
Heavy rain pelting down on a road during a thunderstorm. Photo.aussiedlerbote.de

Weather - Tense flood situation: Reporting level 3 partly exceeded

In view of heavy rainfall, the flood situation in parts of Hesse is tense. The Hessian State Agency for Nature Conservation, Environment and Geology (HLNUG) announced on Christmas Eve that reporting level 3 had been exceeded at some river gauges. In the morning, reporting level 1 was exceeded at 30 gauges, reporting level 2 at 9 gauges and reporting level 3 at the Bad Karlshafen/Weser gauge.

As more continuous rain is expected, especially in the backwater areas of the Rothaargebirge, Westerwald and Vogelsberg, the rivers Diemel, Eder, Fulda and the Lahn and their western catchment areas are particularly affected. Regionally, however, the rainfall has subsided and the flood waves have flowed from the upper to the lower reaches, so that these are now increasingly affected. In addition, in view of the new rainfall, flood levels are also likely to be exceeded in southern Hesse.

In northern Hesse on Sunday, the Dalwigksthal/Orke, Schmittlotheim/Eder, Haueda/Diemel and Bronzell and Bad Hersfeld1 gauging stations on the Fulda River were at reporting level 2. Reporting level 3 had already been briefly exceeded the day before at the Dalwigksthal/Orke and Philippsthal/Ulster gauges. On the Werra and Weser, the outgoing flood wave from Thuringia has reached Hesse and is overlapping with the flood discharges from the Hessian tributaries of the Werra and Weser. As a result, reporting level 1 was exceeded at the Hessian Werra and Weser gauges, reporting level 2 at the Allendorf/Werra gauge and reporting level 3 at the Bad Karlshafen/Weser gauge, it said.

In the Lahn catchment area, reporting level 2 was reached at the Gießen-Klärwerk/Lahn and Leun/Lahn gauges. Reporting levels were also exceeded in the large river basins of the Rhine and Neckar outside Hesse. At the Rockenau/Neckar gauge, reporting level 2 was still in effect with a downward trend, while at the Mainz/Rhine gauge on the Hessian section of the Rhine, reporting level 1 was still in effect with a rising trend at 545 centimetres in the morning.

Level 1 is reached as soon as a body of water is full to the brim and in some places the water is already overflowing its banks. According to HLNUG, reporting level 2 corresponds to a "major flood", which floods properties close to the banks and occasionally causes cellars to overflow. From reporting level 3 onwards, villages are enclosed by floodwater and roads are impassable.

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Source: www.stern.de

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