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Merkel Visits Flood-Stricken Regions of Germany
Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters

Floods Across Central Europe: Heavy rains swelled major rivers in Germany, the Czech Republic and Austria causing widespread destruction.


PIRNA, Germany — When Chancellor Angela Merkel arrived in this Baroque town on Tuesday to wade through ankle-deep floodwaters and dole out human sympathy, Toni Schacha laid down his caulking gun on a stack of sandbags and strained to catch a glimpse of her.
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Houses flooded by the Elbe River in Dresden, Germany, on Tuesday.
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Andreas Gebert/European Pressphoto Agency

Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke with relief workers in Passau, Germany, on Tuesday.

He had put up plywood across the front of his cafe and needed more sealant to keep some of the highest floodwater in five centuries from seeping in. “Silicone! I need more silicone!” Mr. Schacha, 33, called out. But only other residents engaged in the same battle with the elements — emptying homes and businesses of furniture and inventory and barricading doors and windows with sandbags — could hear. The chancellor was already hurrying to her next destination, an inundated village in the neighboring state of Thuringia.

Mr. Schacha went back to applying sealant. “Moral support,” he said. “All anyone can give us now is moral support.”

Ms. Merkel was thinking of something a bit more concrete. She pledged 100 million euros, about $130 million, in immediate aid for all flood-stricken regions.

“What is important now is that we are able to get the aid quickly to people,” Ms. Merkel said in Passau, in southeastern Germany, where water still filled the streets of the medieval Old Town, although it was beginning to recede. On Monday, the Danube there reached a record level of 42 feet, which the authorities said was the highest in 500 years.

In Pirna, on the Elbe River, the chancellor spoke with volunteers readying sandbags and with first responders who had helped evacuate nursing homes. Then she waded into the rapidly rising water in the city’s Old Town, which was struck by the 2002 floods and had been largely renovated and refurbished since.

Mayor Klaus-Peter Hanke said the city had only recently made efforts to capitalize on the brightly repainted and repaired historic downtown, immortalized in the paintings of Bernardo Bellotto in the 18th century.

Now he pondered aloud how it would fare, given an obviously shortened tourist season on top of the flood damage. The city authorities have canceled a parade celebrating the city’s 780th anniversary and a festival later this month.

“Especially our small businesses will need financial assistance,” Mr. Hanke said.

Helmut Gregert, a retiree who said he had spent Monday emptying out a church and helping friends clear basements, agreed. Remembering the devastating effects of the 2002 flood, he welcomed the chancellor’s visit, albeit in restrained tones.

“It is important that she is here and shows solidarity with people,” he said.

Others were less convinced. Several in Pirna who watched Ms. Merkel’s being whisked in to view the damage before speeding out as the waters continued to rise grumbled about campaign tactics but declined to speak on the record with a reporter.

About 4,000 soldiers from the German Army have been sent to help shore up local police officers and volunteers, along with 2,000 more disaster workers. Many worked through the night Monday filling and stacking sandbags to reinforce dikes and other barriers along the Danube, Elbe and Inn Rivers, swollen with rainwater and runoff from the neighboring Czech Republic and Austria.

Residents in Dresden, just north of Pirna, began evacuating its downtown on Tuesday afternoon, as water there was expected to rise an additional five feet or so in coming days. The city’s Semper Opera House altered its schedule, shortening some performances. Officials warned that the flood could reach 2002 proportions, when the river crested at nearly 31 feet. In Pirna, authorities said the flood could be even higher than in 2002.

Asked if he had not taken a risk building a business in the flood-prone inner city, Mr. Schacha shook his head. “The flood of a century is supposed to happen once in a lifetime,” he said. “Not once every 10 years.”

Holles Wood wrote:



James Lawrence Korzun whose list of heroic accomplishments includes Flood responses in both Sri Lanka and India is currently in Bangkok, Thailand today and will plan to be around the Central Mall area by Sukhumvit around evening time Thailand if you need more of his Great Flood Advisement Service with special triangulation feature available then.

The flood preparedness advisory challenge.

James Lawrence Korzun showed himself present by the Central World Mall and then he showed himself ready to respond to such a challenge. He demonstrated years of heroic flood response experience in the context of the 2013 European Scenario. Apparently a number of women in the area were very impressed about the way he has taken matters in hand then and he will plan to get out to make an appearance in the Central Sukhumvit area again sometime during the evening time again tonight to prove in a very friendly manner to the public that he is prepared to double up on the challenge.




...Mother Theresa...I just love you darling!

Holles Wood wrote:

Holles Wood wrote:



James Lawrence Korzun whose list of heroic accomplishments includes Flood responses in both Sri Lanka and India is currently in Bangkok, Thailand today and will plan to be around the Central Mall area by Sukhumvit around evening time Thailand if you need more of his Great Flood Advisement Service with special triangulation feature available then.

The flood preparedness advisory challenge.

James Lawrence Korzun showed himself present by the Central World Mall and then he showed himself ready to respond to such a challenge. He demonstrated years of heroic flood response experience in the context of the 2013 European Scenario. Apparently a number of women in the area were very impressed about the way he has taken matters in hand then and he will plan to get out to make an appearance in the Central Sukhumvit area again sometime during the evening time again tonight to prove in a very friendly manner to the public that he is prepared to double up on the challenge.




...Mother Theresa...I just love you darling!

Holles Wood wrote:

Holles Wood wrote:

Holles Wood wrote:



James Lawrence Korzun whose list of heroic accomplishments includes Flood responses in both Sri Lanka and India is currently in Bangkok, Thailand today and will plan to be around the Central Mall area by Sukhumvit around evening time Thailand if you need more of his Great Flood Advisement Service with special triangulation feature available then.

The flood preparedness advisory challenge.

James Lawrence Korzun showed himself present by the Central World Mall and then he showed himself ready to respond to such a challenge. He demonstrated years of heroic flood response experience in the context of the 2013 European Scenario. Apparently a number of women in the area were very impressed about the way he has taken matters in hand then and he will plan to get out to make an appearance in the Central Sukhumvit area again sometime during the evening time again tonight to prove in a very friendly manner to the public that he is prepared to double up on the challenge.




...Mother Theresa...I just love you darling!

James Lawrence Korzun took the opportunity to get out to the Central area, yesterday Sukhumvit in Bangkok, Thailand.

His wife was very impressed by the way he took the double challenge and she has been encouraging him to take the triple challenge.

Anything about advising about the flood scenario including Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia, he will plan to get out again the evening Thailand time tonight to the Central Sukhumvit in Bankok Thailand to take the triple challenge.




Merit Making Dream Team

Holles Wood wrote:

Holles Wood wrote:

Holles Wood wrote:

Holles Wood wrote:



James Lawrence Korzun whose list of heroic accomplishments includes Flood responses in both Sri Lanka and India is currently in Bangkok, Thailand today and will plan to be around the Central Mall area by Sukhumvit around evening time Thailand if you need more of his Great Flood Advisement Service with special triangulation feature available then.

The flood preparedness advisory challenge.

James Lawrence Korzun showed himself present by the Central World Mall and then he showed himself ready to respond to such a challenge. He demonstrated years of heroic flood response experience in the context of the 2013 European Scenario. Apparently a number of women in the area were very impressed about the way he has taken matters in hand then and he will plan to get out to make an appearance in the Central Sukhumvit area again sometime during the evening time again tonight to prove in a very friendly manner to the public that he is prepared to double up on the challenge.




...Mother Theresa...I just love you darling!

James Lawrence Korzun took the opportunity to get out to the Central area, yesterday Sukhumvit in Bangkok, Thailand.

His wife was very impressed by the way he took the double challenge and she has been encouraging him to take the triple challenge.

Anything about advising about the flood scenario including Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia, he will plan to get out again the evening Thailand time tonight to the Central Sukhumvit in Bankok Thailand to take the triple challenge.




Merit Making Dream Team

Challenge Successful!!!









River City Shopping in Bangkok by the Mae Nam River.

River Cities in Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia brace about flood concerns about the rain inudated Danube and Elbe River.

Flooded Elbe river photographed at the city of Hitzacker, Lower Saxony, Germany, on Saturday June 8, 2013. Heavy rainfalls in the past days cause flooding along rivers and lakes in Germany, Austria, Switzerland the Czech Republic and Hungary. (AP Photo/dpa, Sebastian Kahnert)View Photo

Flooded Elbe river photographed …
Owners of a Volkswagen van have placed their vehicle on stone bases to protect it against flooding in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday June 8, 2013. German news agency dpa said people in Magdeburg in Saxony-Anhalt were anxiously awaiting the crest of the Elbe river on Saturday, while residents further upstream were starting to clean up the debris that was left along the river. In Magdeburg, authorities evacuated a nursing home and turned off electricity in several parts of the city. High water levels were also reported from Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, while thousands of people in Austria were busy shoveling away the mud left by the receding floodwaters of the Danube. (AP Photo/dpa,Jens Buettner)View Photo

Owners of a Volkswagen van have …

BERLIN (AP) — More than 80,000 emergency personnel including firefighters and soldiers were on duty Saturday, working aggressively to contain the most dramatic floods in Germany in a decade. Thousands of residents were still unable to return to their homes, and bridges and streets were impassable in many regions of eastern and southern Germany.

Twenty people reportedly have already died in the floods across central Europe after several days of heavy rains. Thousands have been put up in emergency shelters waiting for the waters to recede so they can get back to their homes.

German news agency dpa said people in Magdeburg in Saxony-Anhalt were anxiously waiting downstream as the crest of the Elbe river approached Saturday. Authorities evacuated a nursing home and turned off electricity in several parts of the city. Where the Saale river meets the Elbe, about 3,000 people had to leave their homes.

"The coming days will be extreme and difficult," Magdeburg's mayor, Lutz Truemper, told news agency dpa.

High water levels were also reported in Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, while thousands of people in Austria were busy shoveling away mud left by the receding floodwaters of the Danube.

In Hungary, around 2,000 residents of the town of Gyorujfalu northwest of the capital of Budapest were evacuated because authorities were afraid the levees wouldn't withstand the pressure of the Danube's waters. Another 980 residents had to leave their homes along the river out of precaution.

Hundreds of volunteers and military personnel were helping shore up the defenses along the Danube in Szentendre, a town 14 miles (22 kilometers) north of Budapest, while military reservists from other Hungarian counties filled sandbags and packed them on top of walls along the river, which was expected to peak here on Sunday at about 16 inches (40 centimeters) above its current record of 25 feet (7.60 meters).

A 330 yards (meters) long and about 2.5 yards (meters) tall mobile flood wall was assembled in eight hours alongside the river promenade in the town earlier this week and is protecting its picturesque center.

"After the floods of 2002 and 2006, the promenade wall became very weak and we decided to tear it down," said Ferenc Dietz, Szentendre's mayor. "We decided to put up a mobile flood wall, in part because it provides total security."

The rising waters of the Danube, Europe's biggest river, were expected to reach Budapest on Monday. The water levels were already at 28.2 feet (8.60 meters) on Saturday and expected to rise to 29.4 feet (8.95 meters) at the peak of the flood — inching close up to the top of the river's flood fences, which are 30.5 feet (9.30 meters) tall. In one of the most devastating floods, in 1838, the Danube killed 150 people and left over 50,000 others homeless.

In Slovakia, the Danube was still on the rise in the towns of Sturovo and Komarno near the Hungarian border. The situation in Komarno was especially critical as several protective barriers started leaking and volunteers had arrived to reinforce them with sandbags.

In the Czech Republic, the waters were dropping further and cleanup work was under way. However, anti-flood measures were to remain in place as heavy rains and thunderstorms were forecast for the weekend.

Holles Wood wrote:Seeing people wade around in high levels of water reminds me of when we sent out the Cajun Navy in that Katrina scenario in New Orleans.

Here'a a Cajun Navy Bean Soup Recipe that can put the Navy Beans in my Cajun Navy Bean Soup.


Ingredients:

Servings:

4-6

Units: US | Metric

1 teaspoon olive oil
3 dry shallots, peeled and diced
1 celery, stalk diced
2 carrots, pared and diced
2 garlic cloves, smashed and chopped
1 1/4 cups dried navy beans (soaked in cold water for 8 hours)
2 teaspoons cajun seasoning (bean seasoning)
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon sage
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon oregano
salt
black pepper

Directions:

1
heat oil in saucepan over med heat. add vegetables and garlic, stir, cover and cook 6 minutes.
2
add drained beans and mix. incorporate remaining ingredients. gradually pour in enough cold water to cover beans by 2 1/2inch. season with salt and black pepper.
3
cook partly covered 2 1/2 hours over med heat. stir several times, adding more water as needed.
4
serve with fresh bread.