Heavy rain, high water, flooding – the storm has southern Germany firmly in its grip. The water levels have reached the heights of a once-in-a-century flood. Dams are breaking. Places are being evacuated. Read everything you need to know in the weather ticker.
8:48 p.m.: Good news from Passau: The water levels of the Danube and Inn are slowly falling. The predicted peaks have been exceeded to date, according to the city. According to the Bavarian Flood Information Service, the water levels are currently 9.64 m on the Danube and 7.11 m on the Inn. The authorities expect the water levels to continue to fall in the next few hours.
7.27 p.m.: After the Upper Bavarian district of Rosenheim, the district of Neu-Ulm in Swabia has also lifted the state of emergency. “We have had some stressful days,” said District Administrator Eva Treu (CSU) on Tuesday evening. “I am glad that we can now lift the state of emergency and have gotten off relatively lightly – especially considering the neighboring districts.”
More than 350 people had to be evacuated in the district, including refugees from the initial reception center in Nersingen, patients at the foundation clinic in Weißenhorn and the Roman villa in Neu-Ulm. The clean-up work and repair of the damage will still take time. “We are also still thinking about the other districts that are still struggling with the flooding.”
6.12 p.m.: A mixture of feces, oil and dirt has flooded Lauffen’s town center, fields and a playground. This is reported by the “tagesschau.” Due to the flooding, the sewerage system of the town in the Heilbronn district is completely overloaded, according to the town. The culprit is a mechanism in the sewage treatment plant. This opens the floodgates when there is flooding.
5.16 p.m.: The entire course of the Danube in Austria has been closed to shipping due to flooding. The state-owned waterway company via donau announced this on Tuesday. “At a certain water level, safety is no longer guaranteed,” Christoph Caspar, spokesman for via donau, told the German Press Agency. How long the measure will remain in force depends on further rainfall and the water volumes of the tributaries.
4:51 p.m.: In Swabia, a woman survived the floods by hiding in the crown of a tree for 52 hours. The 32-year-old was finally discovered on Tuesday afternoon by a search drone and then rescued, police reported. She had been missing since Sunday night in the flooded Silberwald near Neu-Ulm. The woman was largely unharmed, emergency services said. The weakened and dehydrated 32-year-old was taken to hospital.
She had been out in the forest during the night from Saturday to Sunday when the water continued to rise. Around midnight, she was able to call the fire and rescue service control center on her cell phone, said police spokesman Holger Stabik. In addition, an acquaintance of hers had reported her missing to the police.
After that, the woman could no longer be reached by cell phone, possibly because the battery was empty. The helpers began the search. After the emergency call, the woman was able to save herself in the crown of a fallen tree. She then waited day and night in the tree crown, around two meters above the water. When the emergency services finally found her, the flood was still about chest-high under the tree.
4:50 p.m.: The mayor of Regensburg described the flood situation in the city as tense on Tuesday. “We still have one or two days of real tension, real concern that the protective measures we have put in place here in this area on the islands will hold up,” said Gertrud Maltz-Schwarzfischer (SPD) in the afternoon during a visit by Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) to Upper Palatinate.
The soil on the Danube islands is “really moist,” “wet, spongy,” “like jelly,” said Maltz-Schwarzfischer. “That means the situation is still tense.” The water level of the Danube is currently high, but has not yet fallen.
Söder said in Regensburg that the city was “experienced, professional and well positioned when it came to flood protection.” But now the groundwater is pressing against the anchors of the structures and making them “shaky.” With a view to the coming days, the city will therefore remain “on alert,” Söder stressed. “We are focusing on getting through the next few days well.”
2.45 p.m.: In the Neuburg-Schrobenhausen district in Upper Bavaria, the situation on the Danube continued to escalate on Tuesday. In Neuburg, state road 2043 had to be closed from the Bergheim roundabout because the access road to the Danube bridge was flooded with water, a spokesman for the district office said.
In Stepperg, the water masses have overcome a barrier made of sandbags and flowed into the basement. In some houses, the water is on the ground floor. In the area between Burgheim and Bertoldsheim, the dyke was partially flooded. A high-voltage line failed there because transformers were flooded. The municipality has now requested a helicopter to fly over the area to check the condition of the dykes.
In Bergheim, sandbags are being filled at full speed; 100,000 empty bags have been provided from Ingolstadt. Around 700 members of the fire service, the Technical Relief Agency and the relief contingent from Weilheim-Schongau are currently deployed in the district.
Clean-up work is already underway along the Paar in Schrobenhausen. The water level there is continuing to fall.
1:42 p.m.: The city of Passau in Lower Bavaria declared a state of emergency on Tuesday due to the expected worsening of the flood situation. A water level of around ten meters is expected for the Danube during the course of the afternoon, a city spokesman said. The water level is currently 9.97 meters.
At about the same time, however, the crest of the Inn will also reach the three-river city, it was said. Due to the heavy rain on Monday, the city is expecting a water level of more than seven metres there.
Numerous streets and squares in Passau are already closed due to the flooding, and school classes have been cancelled. Bus services are affected, and connections to the old town were completely cancelled on Tuesday. According to reports, the old town and city centre are particularly affected. The city has issued an urgent warning against entering flooded areas. The entire flood area should be avoided as a matter of principle.
The three rivers Danube, Inn and Ilz converge in Passau. The flood situation in Bavaria is becoming increasingly serious, particularly along the Danube.
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1:37 p.m.: The Bavarian Football Association understands the criticism that has arisen following the scheduling of amateur games during the flood disaster. “It is an exceptional situation – also for our volunteer referees. With two days’ notice, one or two things might be arranged a little differently,” said BFV spokesman Fabian Frühwirth on Tuesday when asked. “There were certainly hardship cases. But it is also just as certain that no one was forced to play football in a flood-hit area.”
Background: The Bavarian Football Association (BFV) has scheduled the relegation match between FSV Harthof and Weichs for Tuesday at 7 p.m. But Bavaria is in the midst of a flood disaster! Football pitches are also flooded. Weichs coach Korbinian Regert was accordingly stunned: “I don’t have the head for it at the moment.” He is busy fighting the floods at home and at his grandparents’ house.
Heavy rainfall caused a flood disaster in Bavaria. Many amateur footballers were called in to help or to their own homes. Some football matches were postponed, others went ahead. On Tuesday, the association reacted and cancelled the match.
You can read more about the current weather conditions on the next pages.
