GERMANY: GERMAN POLICE HAVE CLOSED PART OF A MOTORWAY CONNECTING BERLIN AND MUNICH AS OFFICIALS STRUGGLE TO PREVENT IT FROM FLOODING
Record ID:
584888
GERMANY: GERMAN POLICE HAVE CLOSED PART OF A MOTORWAY CONNECTING BERLIN AND MUNICH AS OFFICIALS STRUGGLE TO PREVENT IT FROM FLOODING
- Title: GERMANY: GERMAN POLICE HAVE CLOSED PART OF A MOTORWAY CONNECTING BERLIN AND MUNICH AS OFFICIALS STRUGGLE TO PREVENT IT FROM FLOODING
- Date: 21st August 2002
- Summary: (W5) DESSAU, GERMANY (AUGUST 21, 2002) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. SLV WORKERS ON MOTORWAY BRIDGE PUTTING PUMPS IN THE WATER TO SIPHON OFF EXCESS BEFORE IT REACHES THE MOTORWAY 0.08 2. SV WORKER WITH PUMP 0.13 3. CU OF SIGN PAN TO WORKERS AND JETS OF WATER IN THE BACKGROUND FROM PUMPS 0.24 4. MCU (German) HELMUT MATTHEI, FIRE BRIGADE SAYING: "A flood wave has reached us down here because of the dam that broke further up. We are using powerful water pumps and have managed to avert the danger." 0.35 5. LAS/CU/LV WATER PUMPING OUT OF THE PUMPS (3 SHOTS) 0.44 6. CU PUMPS IN THE WATER 0.59 7. SV/LV OF WORKERS WITH WATER PUMPS (2 SHOTS) 1.13 8. PAN FLOODED FIELDS AND TREES 1.27 9. LV SWAN TAKING A SWIM IN FLOODED FIELD 1.39 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 5th September 2002 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: DESSAU, GERMANY
- Country: Germany
- Reuters ID: LVAARAO0R8LVDDG1DFE350CR1TIJ
- Story Text: German police have closed part of a major motorway
connecting Berlin and Munich as officials struggled to prevent
it from flooding.
Record floods on Wednesday (August 21) continued to
threaten a string of towns in north eastern Germany where
workers built walls of sandbags to protect the A9 motorway
against the floods.
"A flood wave has reached us because of the dam that broke
further up. We are using powerful water pumps and have managed
to avert the danger," Helmut Matthei of a fire brigade unit in
neighbouring Lower Saxony state said.
Matthei and his crew pumped water from an overflowing
artificial pond nearby into adjacent fields and woods.
The fight against the floodwaters that have drenched large
swathes of the country in the last week was the biggest
government operation in post-war history, according to German
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
Thousands of people were evacuated from their homes in the
northern part of the country as floods surged towards
Schroeder's home state.
Around 20,000 people were preparing to leave their houses
in the northern state of Lower Saxony, while in the rural
northeast thousands of emergency workers continued to
reinforce dykes as the high point of the floodwaters passed.
British soldiers stationed in Germany were helping with
the relief effort at the request of the German army, while
Poland donated 150,000 sandbags.
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