GERMANY/POLAND : FLOOD SITUATION REMAINS CRITICAL DESPITE RECEDING FLOOD WATER IN RIVER ODER AREA

Record ID: 649354

  • Title: GERMANY/POLAND : FLOOD SITUATION REMAINS CRITICAL DESPITE RECEDING FLOOD WATER IN RIVER ODER AREA
  • Date: 30th July 1997
  • Summary: RATZDORF, GERMANY (JULY 30, 1997) (RTV) LV FLOODED VILLAGE WITH SANDBAGS PAN RIGHT ACROSS WATERLOGGED ROADS /AND FLOODED VILLAGE (3 SHOTS) 0.19 REITWEIN, GERMANY (JULY 30, 1997) (RTV) LV SOLDIERS REINFORCING FLOOD BARRIERS 0.22 SLV TROOPS REPAIRING DYKES (3 SHOTS) 0.52 WIESENAU, GERMANY (JULY 30, 1997) (RTV) SLV VARIOUS OF MANFRED STOLPE, PREMIER OF STATE OF BRANDENBURG, IN A BOAT, VISITING THE FLOODED AREA (2 SHOTS) 1.03 LV FLOODED HOUSES WITH BOAT PASSING SUBMRGED ROAD SIGNS AND TREES (6 SHOTS) 1.56 MV MEDIA 2.01 SCU STOLPE SAYING LARGE PART OF FINANCIAL AID WILL GO TO LOCAL COMPANIES WHOSE EXISTENCE IS THREATENED BY THE FLOODS. WE CANNOT RISK AN ECONOMIC COLLAPSE OF THE AREA. THE EUROPEAN UNION HAS PROMISED EXTRA FUNDS AND WE ARE VERY GRATEFUL FOR THAT (GERMAN) 2.26 SV MEDIA 2.31
  • Embargoed: 14th August 1997 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: WIESENAU, REITWEIN AND RATZDORF, GERMANY AND AROUND RIVER ODER, POLAND
  • City:
  • Country: Poland Germany
  • Topics: Disasters,Environment,General
  • Reuters ID: LVA5QBN4OT1XN83J1Z2NZNOWLWG
  • Story Text: - INTRO: The situation in East Germany remains critical despite the flood waters of the River Oder showing signs of receding. And the Polish authorities are beginning to count the cost of the flooding which has devastated large areas of the country.

    Officials in Germany were relieved on Wednesday (July 30) to find that the high-water surge expected overnight did not materialise.

    This gave the authorities more time to repair water-sodden flood barriers, which have become weak and porous over the last few days.

    There has been no loss of life in eastern Germany, but damage to homes, farms and businesses has been extensive.

    Local authorities have been setting up mass innoculation programmes to fight the risk of disease from rotting animal carcasses floating in the flood waters.

    Oderbruch, once the bread basket of the former communist East Germany, was reclaimed to create fertile farmland and is vulnerable to flooding because it lies lower than the river and is only protected by a system of dykes.

    The European Union (EU) proposed on Wednesday 1.5 million Ecu (1.4 million U.S. dollars) in relief aid for the German state of Brandenburg in order to help the battered region cope with the flooding.

    The Premier of the state of Brandenburg, Manfred Stolpe, who was paying a visit to the striken area, said he was grateful for the extra funds from the EU.

    In Poland, Finance Minister Marek Belka said there would be spending cuts in many areas next year to raise funds to rebuild areas devastated by the flood. She promised this would be done without boosting inflation and jeopardising economic growth.

    Belka said the flooding, which hit Poland more than three weeks ago causing billions of dollars of damage, had forced him to trim his earlier tentative spending proposals, because he did not want to abandon the bill's overall economic targets.

    Many bridges, roads and railways were destroyed by the floods which hit southwestern Poland more than three weeks ago, but in many cases damage was so severe that full reconstruction would take much longer than six months, she said.

    She said the government did not yet have estimates of the costs of removing the damage. Some independent analysts have put them at up to 7.5 billion zlotys (2.2 billion U.S dollars).
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