GERMANY: GERMAN RIVERS CONTINUE TO SWELL AS TORRENTIAL RAIN WORSENS THE ALREADY WIDESPREAD FLOODING

Record ID: 639903

  • Title: GERMANY: GERMAN RIVERS CONTINUE TO SWELL AS TORRENTIAL RAIN WORSENS THE ALREADY WIDESPREAD FLOODING
  • Date: 27th January 1995
  • Summary: COLOGNE AND ST GOAR ON THE RHINE, GERMANY (JANUARY 27, 1995) (REUTERS TELEVISION - RTV - ACCESS ALL) (COLOGNE) 1. GV/SV OLD TOWN COLOGNE WITH FLOODING RIVER RHINE (2 SHOTS) 0.11 2. MCU/ZOOM OUT SIGN MEASURING HEIGHT OF FLOODING/ CLOCK (2 SHOTS) 0.22 3. LV/ZOOM IN BOY LOOKING INTO RIVER OVER FLOOD BARRICADES (2 SHOTS) 0.30 4. SLV VARIOUS OF FLOOD PREPARATIONS UNDERWAY/ WORKERS ERECTING BARRIERS AND HIGH WALKWAYS (4 SHOTS) 0.51 5. SV/LV EMERGENCY VEHICLES/ SCAFFOLDING (3 SHOTS) 1.07 (ST GOAR ON THE RHINE) 6. GV/SV FLOODING/ FLOODED STREETS (2 SHOTS) 1.16 7. LV PANS BOAT 1.23 8. SV CRANES DOWN TO FLOODING BY CHURCH 1.29 9. SV/LV WATER COMING OUT OF PIPE/PAN EMERGENCY WORKERS PASSING BY IN INFLATABLE BOAT (3 SHOTS) 1.52 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Embargoed: 11th February 1995 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: COLOGNE AND ST. GOAR ON THE RHINE, GERMANY
  • City:
  • Country: Germany
  • Reuters ID: LVAZ9OM524GJIHHX5M8EI87A5GO
  • Story Text: German rivers continued to swell on Friday (January 27) as torrential rain worsened the already widespread flooding.

    However, authorities said the threat of a tidal wave surging up the Rhine River had receded.

    Rain and winds of up to 120 kph (75 mph) lashed central and southern Germany overnight.

    In the far southwest, a small tornado ripped across the Black Forest region, tearing out trees and bringing down electricity pylons.

    In the western Rhine city of Cologne, residents of the low-lying Old Town were erecting three-metre (10-foot) high walkways ready for a repeat of the 1993 "flood of the century".

    Water levels during the 1993 floods reached the first floor of restaurants and hotels.

    Around 0800 GMT, the Rhine at Cologne stood at 9.45 metres (30 feet four inches), just 55 cm (21 inches) below the level at which water pours into the city.

    With the rise slowing to four cm (1.5 inches) an hour, it was touch and go whether the barriers would hold when the expected peak came late on Friday night.

    But authorities said it now seemed unlikely that a flood swell would wash down the Rhine and its tributary the Moselle simultaneously, sending a tidal wave down the Rhine to Bonn and Cologne.

    Some towns in western and central Germany, particularly in the wine-growing Moselle valley, have already been flooded for four days.


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