Helicopter in use
Lower Saxony is asking the Bundeswehr for help due to flooding
December 29, 2023, 4:32 p.m
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The authorities do not yet see any relief in the fight against flooding in Lower Saxony. In order to ensure the stability of the dikes, the state is now alerting the Bundeswehr. A federal police helicopter is already in use.
The Federal Police and the Navy are each in action with one helicopter in Hatten in Oldenburg, Lower Saxony, which was affected by the flood. “The state of Lower Saxony has requested one of our helicopters,” said a spokeswoman for the Federal Police in Berlin. The federal police helicopter brings particularly large sandbags to the dikes to secure them, said a spokesman for the volunteer fire department.
The naval helicopter went up to get an overview of the situation, said a spokesman for the Bundeswehr’s Territorial Command. The helicopters can also be used in the city of Oldenburg and other areas of the Oldenburg district, as the city announced. The helicopters are temporarily under the control of the city’s disaster control department.
The state of Lower Saxony had previously asked the Bundeswehr for support due to the current flood situation. A request for administrative assistance had already been received on Thursday evening, said a spokesman for the Armed Forces’ Territorial Command in the afternoon. Accordingly, six helicopters were put on standby.
“First and foremost, it’s about securing dikes,” said the spokesman. However, personnel and material transport are also possible and, if necessary, evacuations of people at risk. However, this last requirement was initially only made as a precautionary measure.
According to a report in “Spiegel”, the helicopters are supposed to drop textile containers filled with building materials if dikes are softened or even break. This is intended to stabilize the dikes and slow the flow of water. In many places these have already been so softened by the masses of water that helpers can no longer reach them with vehicles.
After heavy rainfall and partly also due to melting snow in the Harz Mountains, many rivers in Lower Saxony are currently flooding. State Interior Minister Daniela Behrens spoke on Deutschlandfunk this morning of a “very, very tense situation”. Almost all of Lower Saxony is under water. The approximately 100,000 personnel from, among others, the fire brigade and the Technical Relief Agency (THW) are deployed everywhere.
There is “really no relaxation in sight yet,” added Behrens. According to the weather forecast, there will be more rain and a storm in the next few days. That doesn’t ease the situation, but rather “exacerbates it in one place or another.”