Extreme Weather - Germany, Schleswig-Holstein, [NorthWestern regions]

Earth Watch Report  -  Extreme Weather

A man stands up to his waist in flood water in a residential street in Rhyl, north Wales December 5, 2013.

Credit: REUTERS/Phil Noble

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Extreme Weather

Germany

Schleswig-Holstein, [NorthWestern regions]

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Extreme Weather in Germany on Thursday, 05 December, 2013 at 14:34 (02:34 PM) UTC.

Description

Weather forecasters predicted winds gusting up to 140km per hour on Germany's North Sea coast. Britain's Environment Agency said tidal surges could bring "significant" coastal flooding, and the Thames Barrier was closed to protect London. Ferry operators canceled services to some of Germany's North Sea islands and the country's national railway, Deutsche Bahn, warned of likely disruption across a swathe of northern Germany. The German Weather Service said the storm front, which was gathering strength as it headed eastwards from the Atlantic Ocean off Greenland, would also bring polar air to Europe - meaning that it could bring snow to low-lying areas.

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Extreme Weather in Germany on Thursday, 05 December, 2013 at 14:34 (02:34 PM) UTC.

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Updated:	Thursday, 05 December, 2013 at 14:44 UTC
Description
Weather services in Northern Europe on Wednesday issued severe weather warnings and forecast traffic disruptions, the day before a powerful Atlantic storm was expected to hit. Northern Germany was also bracing for hurricane-force gales, potentially surpassing 140 kilometres per hour, expected to start Thursday and last into Friday. A mixture of snow and rain accompanied by Arctic temperatures was also expected as the storm called Xaver neared. Hamburg was expected to be among the worst-hit regions, and its airport already was warning passengers Wednesday to be on alert for delays and cancellations. Storm surges are also feared. A similar storm and flooding in 1962 left about 315 dead in the Hamburg area. The force of the storm was expected to be felt well into Germany's interior. Building owners were urged to safeguard their properties. There was also a general call for proprietors of stalls at Christmas markets to secure their wares amid fears that the winds might be strong enough to blow away the temporary stands.

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Extreme Weather in Germany on Thursday, 05 December, 2013 at 14:34 (02:34 PM) UTC.

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Updated:	Thursday, 05 December, 2013 at 14:47 UTC
Description
Germany’s northern cities are bracing for hurricane-strength storm Xaver which meteorologists expect to reach up to 160 kilometers per hour, bringing snow and floods. Municipalities in the federal states of Hamburg, Bremen and Schleswig-Holstein have taken emergency measures against expected floods. 400 full-time firefighters are supported by 2,500 volunteers in Hamburg, the city’s fire department told German press. Schools will be closed on Thursday in most northern Germany cities. Xaver has already caused flight delays and cancelations during the early hours of Thursday at Hamburg airport, as rail services also suffered delays and cancelations. The hurricane-strength storm is expected to intensify over the afternoon. Hamburg was hit by a strong storm and flood in 1962 which killed 315 people and left thousands homeless, but Xaver is not expected to reach such severe levels.

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Extreme Weather in Germany on Thursday, 05 December, 2013 at 14:34 (02:34 PM) UTC.

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Updated:	Friday, 06 December, 2013 at 18:01 UTC
Description
In Germany, about 4,000 people in the northern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern had no power on Friday, schools were closed and about 70 flights at Hamburg airport were cancelled. Officials said floodwaters in the northern German port city of Hamburg rose to 6.09 meters above normal levels early on Friday, the highest level in decades. All 38 flood-gates in Hamburg were closed earlier on Friday. A high-speed rail line running 300 km between Germany's two largest cities Hamburg and Berlin was blocked on Friday by debris on the tracks. Stranded passengers were transferred to buses, according to Deutsche Bahn officials.

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Hurricane-force winds wreak havoc in Britain, head to Europe

By Erik Kirschbaum and Belinda Goldsmith

BERLIN/LONDON Thu Dec 5, 2013 10:57pm GMT

1 of 14. A van drives through seawater washed onto the promenade of the north bay in Scarborough, northern England December 5, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Nigel Roddis

(Reuters) - Hurricane-force Storm Xaver blasted towards mainland Europe on Thursday after cutting transport and power in northern Britain and killing three people in what meteorologists warned could be the worst storm to hit the continent in years.
British authorities said the Thames Barrier, designed to protect London from flooding during exceptional tides, would shut on Thursday night and warned of "the most serious coastal tidal surge for over 60 years in England". Prime Minister David Cameron called two emergency meetings to discuss strategy.

Two people were killed in Britain as the nation's weather office measured winds of up to 225 km per hour (140 mph) when the storm slammed Scotland and parts of England.

Read More Here
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COMET ISON UPDATE

by Dr. Tony Phillips.
spaceweather.com
Reports of naked-eye sightings of Comet ISON are coming in from around the world. Experienced observers put the comet's magntitude at +5.5 on Nov. 16th. This means it is now fully 10 times brighter than it was only three days ago before the outburst. To the naked eye, ISON appears as a faint smudge of pale green light low in the pre-dawn sky. The view through a telescope is more dramatic. The comet's tail has become a riotous crowd of gaseous streamers stretching more than 3.5 degrees across the sky. Amateur astronomer Waldemar Skorupa sends this picture from Kahler Asten, Germany:

The tail is so long, he couldn't fit the whole thing in the field of view. How long is it? Comet ISON's tail extends more than 8 million kilometers behind the comet's nucleus. For comparison, that's 21 times the distance between Earth and the Moon.

Because so much gas and dust is spewing from the comet's core, it is impossible to see clearly what caused Comet ISON's outburst on Nov. 13-14. One possibility is that fresh veins of ice are opening up in the comet's nucleus, vaporizing furiously as ISON approaches the sun. Another possibility is that the nucleus has completely fragmented.

"If so, it will still be several days before we know for sure," says Karl Battams, an astronomer with NASA's Comet ISON Observing Campaign. "When comet nuclei fall apart, it’s not like a shrapnel-laden explosion. Instead, the chunks slowly drift apart at slightly different speeds. Given that ISON’s nucleus is shrouded in such a tremendous volume of light-scattering dust and gas right now, it will be almost impossible to determine this for at least a few days and perhaps not until the comet reaches the field of view of NASA's STEREO HI-1A instrument on November 21, 2013. We will have to wait for the chunks to drift apart a sufficient distance, assuming they don't crumble first."

In short, no one knows for sure what is happening to Comet ISON. This could be the comet's death throes--or just the first of many brightening events the comet experiences as it plunges toward the sun for a close encounter on Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 28th).

Monitoring is encouraged. Comet ISON rises in the east just before the sun. Amateur astronomers, if you have a GOTO telescope, enter these coordinates. Dates of special interest include Nov. 17th and 18th when the comet will pass the bright star Spica, making ISON extra-easy to find. Sky maps: Nov. 15, 16, 17, 18, 19.

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Six dead in Germany as storm sweeps across Europe

Deaths in the Netherlands and Denmark, woman swept out to sea off France, and Sweden braces for storm's arrival

• Ben Quinn and agencies
• The Guardian, Monday 28 October 2013 15.16 EDT

Rescue workers stand next to a car crushed by a falling tree near Rheibach, Germany. Photograph: Axel Vogel/Corbis

The death toll across Europe from storms that began sweeping the continent on Sunday has reached at least 12, with Britain, Germany and the Netherlands among the hardest hit.
Four people died in the south of England after winds gusting up to nearly 100mph felled trees, and another four were killed on Monday in Germany, adding to two deaths at sea off the German coast on Sunday.
In Amsterdam a woman was killed and another person injured when a tree by a canal was blown over. Other injuries were reported around the city from falling debris.
In Denmark a man died after he was hit by a flying brick north of Copenhagen. In France a woman was still missing on Monday night after being swept out to sea from a cliff at Belle-Ile, Brittany.
Transport infrastructure took a battering across the continent. Sustained winds of more than 75mph caused the cancellation of 50 flights at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, Europe's fourth largest, and there were delays at Europe's busiest port in Rotterdam.


Read More Here
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Watch Sky News

Storm Sweeps Europe After Battering Britain

Hurricane-strength winds topple trees, cut power supplies and cause travel chaos across northern Europe.

10:54pm UK, Monday 28 October 2013

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  As a deadly storm moves from Britain to mainland Europe, a tree falls on a car in Amsterdam, killing a woman.
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  Large waves break against the dyke at the port of Boulogne in northern France.
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  People watch a boat from the shore as a storm passes over the beach in Scheveningen in the Netherlands.

Some 10 people have died in Germany, France, the Netherlands and Scandinavia after a fatal storm that struck Britain swept eastwards to northern Europe.

A Danish man was killed near Copenhagen by a collapsing wall, a woman was killed by falling trees in Amsterdam and a 47-year-old woman was found dead after being swept out to sea during a cliff walk on Belle Ile in France.
At least seven people died in Germany with falling trees killing several drivers. One man also drowned and a 66-year-old woman died when a wall collapsed on her, German media reported.

Thirteen floor high scaffolding comes down in Merksem, Antwerpen

Hurricane-strength winds cut power supplies and forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights and train journeys across the continent.
Southern Sweden was hit by torrential rain, and winds up to 84mph (136kph) blew down trees, blocking roads and bringing down power lines, leaving around than 50,000 homes without electricity.
As evening fell there were no reports of injuries in Sweden but widespread reports of property damage.


Read More Here
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11 dead as storm lashes northern Europe

Agence France-Presse

5:50 am | Tuesday, October 29th, 2013

LONDON—At least 11 people were killed on Monday as a fierce storm tore across northern Europe, causing mass disruption to transport.
Four people were killed in Britain and three in Germany as heavy rain and high winds battered the region. The storm also claimed two victims in The Netherlands, one in France and one in Denmark.
Rough conditions at sea also forced rescuers to abandon the search for a 14-year-old boy who disappeared while playing in the surf on a southern English beach on Sunday.
British Prime Minister David Cameron described the loss of life as “hugely regrettable.”
Winds reached 99 miles (159 kilometers) per hour on the Isle of Wight off the southern English coast, according to Britain’s Met Office national weather center, while more than 500,000 homes in Britain and France were left without power.
Heavy rain and winds of 80 mph elsewhere brought down thousands of trees and left hundreds of passengers trapped in planes at Copenhagen airport.
In Britain, a 17-year-old girl died after a tree fell on the parked caravan where she was sleeping, while a 51-year-old father of three died when a tree hit his car, police said.
The bodies of a man and a woman were later found in the rubble of three houses in London that collapsed in an explosion thought to have been caused by a gas pipe being ruptured in the storm.

Read More Here
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THE GREAT DELUGE: Mass Evacuations - Thousands Flee Floods In Germany And Hungary!

 

Andre Heath

Published on Jun 10, 2013

The CELESTIAL Convergence | http://thecelestialconvergence.blogsp...

June 10, 2013 - GERMANY - Tens of thousands of people have been forced to leave their homes as the River Elbe burst through a dam and flooded parts of eastern Germany. Today the Elbe breached another levee on its relentless march towards the North Sea, forcing Germany to evacuate ten villages and close one of the country's main railway routes. Upstream there was some relief as the river slipped back from record levels in Magdeburg, the capital of Saxony-Anhalt state. At least 21 flood-related deaths have been in reported in central Europe following a week of heavy rain, leading to rivers swelling and extensive damage. The latest confirmed death was an 80-year-old man in Austria who died of a heart attack yesterday during the clean-up operation in the wake of floods. Magdeburg had water levels more than 16ft above normal over the weekend, although the Elbe has now retreated by about a foot. More than 23,000 people had to leave their homes in the city when the electricity was cut off and streets flooded. But further downstream, a levee at Fischbeck, west of Berlin, was breached overnight, prompting officials to evacuate ten villages in the area. Germany's national railway had to close a bridge near Fischbeck on the line from Berlin to Cologne, Frankfurt and Amsterdam. Residents in the Rothensee neighbourhood of Magdeburg were evacuated with tanks, trucks and buses. 'Rothensee is filling up like a bathtub,' army spokesman Andre Sabzog told news agency dpa. Around 700 soldiers were trying to build a dam of sandbags around a power substation to protect it from the Elbe. If the substation floods, thousands of households would be left without water and it would lead to a breakdown of the neighborhood's dewatering pumps.


 The CELESTIAL Convergence | http://thecelestialconvergence.blogsp...  



  

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Flood – Germany, Saxony-Anhalt, Magdeburg [Elbe River] : More than 80,000 emergency personnel including firefighters and soldiers were on duty and more than 15,000 people to evacuate the eastern city of Magdeburg

Earth Watch  Report  -  Flooding

Firefighters and volunteers in Nagymaros lay sandbags to keep the flood waters at bay

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10.06.2013

Flood

Germany

Saxony-Anhalt, Magdeburg [Elbe River]

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Flood in Germany on Sunday, 09 June, 2013 at 09:43 (09:43 AM) UTC.

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Updated:	Sunday, 09 June, 2013 at 09:45 UTC
Description
More than 80,000 emergency personnel including firefighters and soldiers were on duty Saturday, working aggressively to contain the most dramatic floods in Germany in a decade. Thousands of residents were still unable to return to their homes, and bridges and streets were impassable in many regions of eastern and southern Germany. Twenty people reportedly have already died in the floods across central Europe after several days of heavy rains. Thousands have been put up in emergency shelters waiting for the waters to recede so they can get back to their homes. German news agency dpa said people in Magdeburg in Saxony-Anhalt were anxiously waiting downstream as the crest of the Elbe river approached Saturday. Authorities evacuated a nursing home and turned off electricity in several parts of the city. Where the Saale river meets the Elbe, about 3,000 people had to leave their homes. "The coming days will be extreme and difficult," Magdeburg's mayor, Lutz Truemper, told news agency dpa.

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Flood in Germany on Sunday, 09 June, 2013 at 09:43 (09:43 AM) UTC.

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Updated:	Monday, 10 June, 2013 at 04:06 UTC
Description
German authorities have urged more than 15,000 people to evacuate the eastern city of Magdeburg has flood levels reached record levels. Meanwhile, people in Budapest are bracing as the surging Danube approaches. The water level of the Elbe river in Magdeburg Sunday reached nearly 7.4 meters (24 feet), up from the normal level of two meters. The peak level was 70 centimeters above that reached during the last catastrophic floods in 2002, when the river's maximum was 6.72 meters. "We hope that the dikes will withstand the pressure over the coming days, but we can't be 100 percent sure," said fire service spokesman Andreas Hamann, who is one of 1,200 emergency staff working in the area. Flooding in Germany and across central Europe has caused billions of euros of damage and killed at least 18 people. The evacuations in Magdeburg were described as a precaution, but a city spokesman said "people really are supposed to leave" when confronted with danger. A total of 23,000 have been asked to evacuate the city this weekend.

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Thousands flee flood-hit parts of Germany and Hungary

Thousands have had to leave their homes, as Stephen Evans reports

Some 23,000 people were forced to leave their homes in the east German city of Magdeburg after a dam burst on the flood-swollen River Elbe.

Although water levels in Magdeburg were reported to be subsiding on Monday, other parts of the state of Saxony-Anhalt remain under threat.
In Hungary, 1,200 people had to leave their homes but in the capital Budapest flood defences appear to have held.
At least 18 people have died in the floods in Central Europe.
Analysts say the damage will cost billions of euros to clean up.
The authorities in Germany are investigating an anonymous letter threatening attacks on several dams.
The motive behind the threats is not known, but the threat is being taken seriously, says the BBC's Stephen Evans in Berlin.
Sandbags
With levels on the Danube peaking, the mayor of Budapest sought to reassure the city's inhabitants and said leaking dykes had been fixed.
"Budapest is not at risk of a catastrophe, the level is not expected to rise significantly," Istvan Tarlos said.

Firefighters and volunteers in Nagymaros lay sandbags to keep the flood waters at bay

Along more than 700km (470 miles) of the River Danube, thousands of people, including many volunteers and even convicts from the prisons, worked to reinforce earth and sandbag barriers,
More than 1,200 people have been evacuated from their homes along the river, although no flood-related deaths have yet been reported in Hungary.
In Magdeburg, the capital of Saxony-Anhalt state, more than 23,000 people left their homes on Sunday as flood waters rose to 7.44m (24ft), nearly four times higher than normal (2m).


Read Full Article and Watch Video Here
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Flood - Czech Republic, Capital City, Prague/ Germany Saxony, Dresden UPDATE : 10 people were confirmed dead in Czech Republic,about nine others are reportedly missing. Prague, is preparing for more flooding as the Vltava river is continuing to rise.

Earth Watch Report - Flooding

 

Flooded streeets in Dresden's Gohlis district

Getty Images

The old town is flooded by the river Elbe in Meissen, eastern Germany

Getty Images

Residents transport sand bags to build a flood protection in a street flooded by the river Elbe in Dresden, eastern Germany

Getty Images

See Additional Photos Here

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06.06.2013

Flood

Czech Republic

Capital City, Prague

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Flood in Czech Republic on Monday, 03 June, 2013 at 03:06 (03:06 AM) UTC.

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Updated:	Tuesday, 04 June, 2013 at 04:09 UTC
Description
Czech officials have said the waters of the Vltava river could reach critical levels in the capital city Prague as torrential rain continued to cause chaos and claim lives across central Europe. At least eight people have died and at least two are missing after heavy rain caused landslides and swelled river waters to dangerously high levels in three countries. Czech officials said the waters of the Vltava river could reach critical levels in Prague and that special metal walls were being erected to prevent flooding. Interim Mayor Tomas Hudecek said they were shutting down eight stations of the capital's subway network and urging people not to travel to the city. Anticipating traffic problems, the mayor said all nursery, elementary and high schools in the Czech capital will be closed today. In the nearby town of Trebenice where a woman was found dead in the rubble after a summer cottage collapsed due to the raging water, authorities discovered the dead body of a man, Czech public television reported. Separately, at least three other people were reportedly missing.

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Flood in Czech Republic on Monday, 03 June, 2013 at 03:06 (03:06 AM) UTC.

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Updated:	Tuesday, 04 June, 2013 at 04:43 UTC
Description
The government of Czech Republic declared a state of emergency across much of the country on Monday. In Prague, the fire brigade erected flood barriers to try to protect the Old Town from the swollen Vltava River, which flows through the Czech capital. Meteorologists said the flooding in Prague and other areas of the country probably had not yet reached their peak. Heavy rainfall has also caused heavy flooding in low-lying regions of Austria - as well as landslides on some mountains. The number of deaths attributed to the flooding rose to two on Monday after the body of a man missing since Saturday evening was recovered. There has been at least one flood-related death in Germany and six in the Czech Republic since the floods hit. The European Commission noted that help would be available to the victims of the current flooding through the European Solidarity Fund, which it set up after the last major floods to hit the region in 2002. "I want to assure those affected and the politicians, too, that the European family will lend support to its member states and help where it's needed the most," said Johannes Hahn, a spokesperson for EU Regional Policy Commissioner.

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Flood in Czech Republic on Monday, 03 June, 2013 at 03:06 (03:06 AM) UTC.

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Updated:	Tuesday, 04 June, 2013 at 08:32 UTC
Description
On Tuesday, at least e10 pople wre confirmeed dead in Czech Republic. About nine others are reportedly missing. Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas declared a state of emergency on June 2 and promised relief aid. The Czech Republic capital, Prague, is preparing for more flooding as the Vltava river is continuing to rise.

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Flood in Czech Republic on Monday, 03 June, 2013 at 03:06 (03:06 AM) UTC.

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Updated:	Thursday, 06 June, 2013 at 14:04 UTC
Description
In the Czech Republic, firefighters said some 700 Czech villages, towns and cities have been hit by flooding in the last few days and some 20,500 people had to be evacuated. In the country's north, the water in the Elbe reached its highest level overnight and began to recede Thursday.

.... The Telegraph

Aerial footage shows extent of flooding across Europe

Flooding in the German city of Dresden and Czech capital Prague is een from the air, as the death toll due to the floods in Europe rises to at least 10.

9:28PM BST 04 Jun 2013  

Aerial footage shows extent of flooding across Europe - Prague V01:19

 

Another nine people have been reported missing in the floods that have also swept through Austria and Switzerland.

Peak floodwaters coursing out of the Czech Republic were expected to hit Dresden, capital of the German province of Saxony, along the Elbe in three to four days.

Many areas of Dresden were already badly flooded on Tuesday, including some parts of the historic city centre.

Cities and towns in the German states of Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia and Brandenburg were also hit with flooding.

Seven of those killed in the floods were in the Czech Republic, where a man was found dead in the water in eastern Bohemia on Tuesday.

Woman wakeboards along street in flood-hit Czech Republic

Video of a woman wakeboarding through the flooded streets of a Czech town has provided a rare moment of levity for the Czech Republic as it continues to battle the worst flooding in over decade.

By Matthew Day, Warsaw

11:01AM BST 04 Jun 2013

The video, which has become an internet hit in the Czech Republic, shows the 26-year old, known only as Mila, being towed by a car and skimming along the water-filled streets of the town of Pisek in southern Bohemia.

“We were going round the town taking pictures and then we saw children splashing in the water and that gave us the idea,” Radek, the man who made the video, told the Czech press. “We thought we could go boarding.”

The wakeboarding video came as vast flood waters caused by days of torrential rain continued to leave a trail of death and destruction across the Czech Republic, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. 

Read Full Article  and  Watch Additional  Videos  Here

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Residents transport sand bags to build a flood protection in a
street flooded by the river Elbe in Dresden, eastern Germany

Getty Images

See Additional Photos Here ....

06.06.2013

Flood

Germany

Saxony, Dresden

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Flood in Germany on Thursday, 06 June, 2013 at 14:02 (02:02 PM) UTC.

Description

The surging Elbe River crested Thursday in the eastern German city of Dresden, sparing the historic city center but engulfing wide areas of the Saxony capital. Residents and emergency crews had worked through the night to fight the floods in Dresden. The German military and the national disaster team sent more support in a frantic effort to sandbag levees and riverbanks as floodwaters that have claimed 16 lives since last week surged north. "Everybody's afraid but the people are simply fantastic and sticking together," said Dresden resident Silvia Fuhrmann, who had brought food and drinks to those building sandbag barriers. The Elbe hit 8.76 meters (28 feet, 9 inches) around midday - well above its regular level of two meters (6 1/2 feet). Still, that was not high enough to damage city's famous opera, cathedral and other buildings in its historic city center, which was devastated in a flood in 2002. Germany has 60,000 local emergency personnel and aid workers, as well as 25,000 federal disaster responders and 16,000 soldiers now fighting the floods. Farther downstream, the town of Lauenburg - just southwest of Hamburg - evacuated 150 houses along the Elbe, n-tv news reported, as the floodwaters roared toward the North Sea.

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