Rains, mild weather raises Christmas flood risks in Germany
Days of heavy rainfall across much of Germany have increased the risk of flooding along many rivers and streams, the federal weather service warned on Sunday.
The rainfall is likely to continue until Monday, reaching up to 150 millimetres of rain - or even more - within 48 to 96 hours, the Deutscher Wetterdienst warned.
The risk of flooding will exacerbated by heavy thaws in some areas, for example in the eastern Ore Mountains, it added.
In the northern state of Lower Saxony, the third-highest of four warning levels was reached at 30 measuring stations early on Sunday, according to state authorities.
The threshold was exceeded by the rivers Weser, Aller, Leine and Oker, among others. At level three, flooding of properties and larger areas as well as roads and cellars is possible. Firefighters and volunteers used sandbags to protect parts of several districts.
In the northern city of Hanover, the fire brigade was working around the clock due to the rain and heavy gusts of wind. A lot of water damage to buildings was reported and trees had to be removed, the fire brigade said on Sunday.
The emergency services secured transformer stations in the Rodenberg district east of Hanover, according to a dpa reporter present. Sirens sounded overnight to warn residents.
District mayor Thomas Wolf said early on Sunday that the floodwater was flowing over the weir. Volunteers had run from house to house to warn residents. The municipality had not experienced a flood like this in 25 years, he said.
In the neighbouring state of Saxony-Anhalt, the flood forecasting centre issued warnings for the Mulde, Aller and Havel rivers.
The flood situation also worsened in parts of Saxony, with alert level 3 reached at several water gauges on Sunday morning, including in the city of Chemnitz.
In parts of North Rhine-Westphalia, in north-western Germany, the authorities were preparing for flooding.
In a suburb of Münster, the fire brigade rescued a woman when her car got trapped in floodwater on Saturday. In the industrial Ruhr area, the continuous rain caused problems for the railway, washing out tracks between Dortmund and Hagen.
In Bavaria, some districts reached warning level 3, rising to level 4 in the towns of Coburg and Kulmbach. The regions of Franconia and eastern Bavaria were particularly affected, with several cellars flooded and roads closed.
In parts of Bavaria, strong winds disrupted skiing on Sunday, Christmas Eve. The cable car up the Zugspitze, Germany's highest mountain, was closed due to wind, according to its website, although the rack railway to the peak was operational.
On the nearby Alpspitze, the avalanche commission was checking the situation. In many places, there was a considerable avalanche danger above 1,500 metres on Sunday.
In Brandenburg near Berlin, meanwhile, swimmers took a Christmas dip in Lake Senftenberg wearing Santa hats - although they expressed displeasure at the relatively warm air temperature of 6 degrees Celsius.
"It's really pleasant when the air temperature is 10 degrees below zero and it's plus one degree in the water," said club spokesman Peter Lehmann. "It's far more fun when you have to hack a swimming hole in the frozen lake under a sunny blue sky."
