Partially unfriendly reception
Scholz inspects flood areas in Saxony-Anhalt
January 4, 2024, 1:15 p.m
It is his second visit to the site since the floods: this time the Chancellor is coming in rubber boots instead of low shoes. Scholz wants to get an overview of the situation in Sangerhausen. The all-clear is not yet in sight in the areas affected by flooding.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz has arrived in the flood area in the south of Saxony-Anhalt. Together with Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke and Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff, he got an idea of the situation in Oberröblingen, a district of Sangerhausen. The Chancellor was received unfriendly by some people. “Criminals”, “Your politics are based on lies” and “Go back straight away” were heard from a group of around ten people.
Previously, Scholz had gotten an overview from the helicopter, this time in rubber boots instead of hiking boots. It is Scholz’s second on-site visit to the current flood situation. On New Year’s Eve he found out about the situation there in Verden an der Aller, Lower Saxony. Scholz, Lemke and Haseloff inspected the dike at the Helmebrücke in the morning. The Helme, which flows through Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia, drains the southern part of the Lower Harz.
The Mansfeld-Südharz district, to which Sangerhausen belongs, declared a disaster at the end of the year. From Monday, around 150 Bundeswehr soldiers will support the operation on site and help with filling sandbags and defending the dikes. Some soldiers are already in Oberröblingen and are advising the emergency services there. In the Kyffhäuser district in the north of Thuringia, also located in the southern Harz foothills, a dike that has already been opened is to be further deepened this Thursday in order to prevent villages from being flooded due to rising water levels.
Softened dikes still hold
Despite the constant rain, the dikes in the flood areas have so far been able to withstand the water masses. However, the situation remains tense in many places due to water levels continuing to rise in some places. It has rained again in large parts of Germany in the past few days, which has caused the already high river levels to rise further. By Friday evening there will be further rainfall in relevant quantities in the affected areas in the northwest and west as well as Franconia, as ntv meteorologist Björn Alexander explains. 10 to 15 liters per square meter are forecast for Lower Saxony. For the western reservoirs in the Harz up to 40 liters. 20 to 40 liters per square meter are also expected for the west and southwest as well as along the low mountain ranges. A drop in levels is therefore only likely on Saturday.
The situation remains critical, especially in Lower Saxony. However, according to the fire department, an endangered dike secured with sandbags on the Hunte in Sandkrug in the Oldenburg district is currently stable. Because of numerous onlookers, the dike is now under permanent video surveillance. Meanwhile, the Flotwedel fire department in the Celle district reported the theft of an emergency generator that supplied several pumps for pumping out water. The emergency services were “shocked”.
In view of the flood damage, Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister Stephan Weil once again assured that the state wanted to help “very quickly” in acute emergencies. He did not mention a sum on Norddeutscher Rundfunk on Wednesday evening. The situation in other federal states also remains tense for the time being. The State Office for Nature, Environment and Consumer Protection in North Rhine-Westphalia reported rising water levels in parts of the Weser and Rhine. In Thuringia, too, the water levels in the upper Werra, the Ilm and the upper Saale rose after the continuous rain in the Thuringian Forest.