Germany braces for a surge in floods
Source: AFP |
June 7, 2013, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
GERMANY pushed on with efforts to secure river dykes with sandbags yesterday, bracing for a surge of the worst floods in over a decade that have claimed 12 lives and forced mass evacuations across central Europe.
Vast stretches along the Elbe river basin have turned into a sea of brown water in the Czech Republic and downstream in eastern Germany, with red-tiled roofs sticking out of the muddy water in many abandoned villages now accessible only by boat or helicopter.
The picture of devastation was similar along the mighty Danube, which has jumped its banks in Germany's southern Bavaria state and Austria and sparked large-scale disaster preparations in Hungary, where the water was expected to peak in coming days.
In northeast Germany, thousands of volunteers, many organized through social media, as well as 85,000 firefighters, aid workers and troops have filled millions of sandbags to hold back the torrent which has risen from two to above eight meters. Officials have warned that a breach in the lake defences in Bitterfeld, Saxony-Anhalt state, could spark a "mini-tsunami", and officials have twice attempted to blow holes in the lake dyke away from the city, with limited success.
Vast stretches along the Elbe river basin have turned into a sea of brown water in the Czech Republic and downstream in eastern Germany, with red-tiled roofs sticking out of the muddy water in many abandoned villages now accessible only by boat or helicopter.
The picture of devastation was similar along the mighty Danube, which has jumped its banks in Germany's southern Bavaria state and Austria and sparked large-scale disaster preparations in Hungary, where the water was expected to peak in coming days.
In northeast Germany, thousands of volunteers, many organized through social media, as well as 85,000 firefighters, aid workers and troops have filled millions of sandbags to hold back the torrent which has risen from two to above eight meters. Officials have warned that a breach in the lake defences in Bitterfeld, Saxony-Anhalt state, could spark a "mini-tsunami", and officials have twice attempted to blow holes in the lake dyke away from the city, with limited success.
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