Thousands of people were battling to fortify flood-damaged dykes yesterday on the River Oder to avert a major disaster as a first group of villagers was evacuated. In the third week of devastating floods in the Czech Republic, Germany and Poland, monitors and rescuers were raising dyke levels and adding sandbags to stabilise dykes on the German side of the Oder, which separates Germany and Poland.
The village of Aurith, whose population is 150, was the first to be evacuated yesterday afternoon after a dyke was so waterlogged that it threatened to break, the regional interior ministry said.
As dyke crests were dangerously close to the floodwater in other areas, cattle were moved from low-lying areas to safe meadows because water levels rose by the hour, officials said.
The Brandenburg state interior ministry said 19,000 people, 24,000 cattle, 4,000 pigs, 1,000 sheep and 70 horses were threatened by the floods.
At Brieskow-Finkenheerd, near the industrial town of Eisenhuettenstadt, a dyke crest was washed away over a length of 14 metres but was filled with sandbags.
The German Chancellor, Dr Helmut Kohl, who visited the Brandenburg border region, said the government would provide all necessary assistance. Dr Kohl was travelling on to inaugurate a steel plant at Eisenhuettenstadt.
At the junction between the Rivers Oder and Neisse in Ratzdorf, water levels reached a record 6.81 metres, eight centimetres more than Monday night. The floods were expected to peak at 7.10 metres. - (AFP)