Wet christmas

[Skybird]

Christmas still could get interesting for me. I live in the vicinity of one major and three minor waterways, 1400-4000m away in straight lines. And this is how it looks over here in the South-Eastern outskirts of my hometown. Though not yet as desastrous as during the heavy rain desaster 2014 when most of the total city drowned due to three supercells meeting over the city - and then stopped moving. Its raining over here mostly mildly but constantly since ten days, and more is predicted to come. Driving to my parents on ebike yesterday evening was with gusts of 60-70 km/h in the face, however.

The area some of you may remember from one of my videos ("Essen holen"), east along the river Werse through that idyllic little forest that loked so harmless and tame with meadows near that small river - its all a huge lake now, what was a small river 5-10m wide and shallow, now has swallowed holiday houses, meadows, acres, and in parts is over 3 m deep and in parts reaches hundreds of meters into the neighbouring land. Thankfully between there and my place flows the Dortmund-Ems-Channel, deep wide, fast and steady, washing away much of that eastern flood and transporting it north before it could reach my part of the city. Water has strange ways at times...

Images from the Westfälische Nachrichten. On bike its just a very few minutes to get to these places. The rivers in these images all flow further towards Münster, passing my neighbourhood at just a few hundred meters away.























Water levels are still rising. Every centimeter now counts...

[Dargo]

Same here in the Netherlands. There is a lot of water in streams, ditches and rivers. In the major rivers the peak of the high water has yet to come, it is expected that the water in the rivers Rhine, Waal and IJssel will rise another two meters during the holidays to about 3.5 to 4 meters above normal. This is mainly because there has also been persistent rainfall in Germany in recent weeks. The Rijn and IJssel Water Board expects the water in the Rhine and IJssel to rise at least another two meters. The highest water level is now expected on December 28 when the water in the Rhine at Lobith will rise to almost 15 meters above Amsterdam Ordnance Datum (NAP). The water boards constantly check the condition of the dikes throughout the Netherlands along the rivers in more and more places high water causes inconvenience, but that is all so far we are prepared for this.

[Skybird]

First dike near Hamm (at the river Lippe) has been perforated, water is freely flushing through a widening hole. Throughout the Ruhr industrial area, other dikes are in critical conditons, too. The rivers Ems, Aa and Leine in outskirts of and near my hometown Münster see their levels climbing a centimeter every two to three hours. The Werse is a widenign lake over here. Warendorf 20km east of me has been flooded, Telgte 10 km is on the brink of gettign flooded, two district areas on the south-eastern rim of my hometown that are less than 3 km from my position are to 50% under water, over 1m deep they say.



Not 2014 again, please... Rain is coming for the rest of the week, just maybe not the ammounts anymore that we had the past days. Since the desaster 2014, the city undertook several construction projects to better manage and protect against floodings. Could be that in the coming hours or the next 2-3 days they will be brought to their first test.

[Dargo]

See that the German flood protection is based on Dutch ideas to give more space for rivers natural floodplains that they buffer the course of a flood wave because they store and retain water temporarily so that those areas absorb and retain floodwaters. I am sure all those project will stand the test, we do this for centuries our knowledge is used we spend billions every year to upkeep the dikes, reclamation of natural retention areas, controlled flood retention through flood polders and flood retention basins, and elimination of vulnerabilities.

[mapuc]

It's hard for me to comprehend the magnitude of this. Guess you has to be there to understand the way Nature shows it's face.

Only thing I can say is Be careful, take care.

Markus

[Skybird]

The problem is that we have ongoing rain for days and weeks now. Novembre, Decembre. The soil is incapable to take in any more water, thats why it does not drip down vertically into the soil, but spills horizontally. The upper layers of the ground cannot store any more water anymore - sicne days already, if not weeks.

Theoretically our deep water sweet water reservoirs can use these floods, they have been terribly exhausted over the past 3, 4 years's hot and dry summers and way too little rain over the year. But it takes weeks until rain on the surface reaches these deep layers in the ground now.

Two hundred meters in straight line away from where I live, they have build a dike along the small Aa that runs parrallel to a main taffic road and that got completely drowned 9 years ago, the the river bed was denaturated and new bends and turns got added and reservoire areas added and a pump station got build, connected to the drain. Usually its a small "river" just 1-2 meters wide and so shallow that a Dachshound can stand in it without needing to swim. Its a joke of a river here at this point. Now it is a huge lake, over two meters deep, and some dozen meters wide, and close to the top of the dike's upper rim. It balances there since days. At the current rate of raining, if the dike holds, we will get away, but a bit more intensity in the rain could spell desaster within a few hours. Also, its the sewage that may get overloaded, what drowned my district 9 years ago was not only the water falling down on us (240 l per sqm in two hours), but worse was the water that rose from below our feet and came from the sewage and drains.

Currently no rain. Hope it stays that way. Orkan Zoltan is on his way out, but before he left he really had a party. And its 10-11°C, so no chance that it turns into snow.

The squirrels also are not happy...

[Buddahaid]

Hoping for the best. Stay safe.

[Dargo]

Same here and we lower than you so getting all your water and same wet months. Better get used to it, this will not change in the near future. Keep your feet up and stay safe

[Ostfriese]

Originally Posted by mapuc

It's hard for me to comprehend the magnitude of this. Guess you has to be there to understand the way Nature shows it's face.

Only thing I can say is Be careful, take care.

Markus

It's actually not THAT bad. Floods like these are not uncommon in December, and in my area most of the flooded areas are actually flood zones, and they become flooded usually once per year anyway. It looks far more dramatic than it actually is. A few people will have their basements flooded, and a lot of roads and bicycle paths will be blocked for some time, but that will be it.



However, due to the dry summers the soil has dried out, and a layer from about 60cm below ground to 150cm below ground (2 - 5 feet) is too dry to quickly absorb water from above. That means that a lot of the water on the surface can only recede slower than usual - which in turn makes the rainfall more problematic than usual.

[Skybird]

It stopped raining! Chances are it stays that way for coming 48 hours

[Skybird]

Life is absurd. This is at the river Ruhr, near Essen.

[Dargo]

All hands on deck at Dutch water boards, but dikes are safe

High water levels in several rivers in the Netherlands will continue to cause inconvenience in the coming days. Especially along the river IJssel problems are expected. Near Deventer, the water level of that river is rising faster than expected, the water is rising at one centimetre per hour, which is extremely hard. Tomorrow the water is expected to reach the critical point of 6.30 meters above NAP, after which the water will run over the quay wall. Then a road between the IJssel and the city centre will also flood. This has already been partially closed as a precautionary measure to place a dam of sandbags there to protect the old city centre. This will raise the quay about 30 centimetres. In a few places along the IJssel, the high water is coming under the dikes. These quagmires are common during high water, but do require measures, because otherwise a water corridor under the dike may develop. Back pressure is created by means of sandbags.



The effects of the heavy rainfall are also clearly visible in Drenthe. The canals and ditches in Overijssel are completely full and according to spokesman Herald van Gerner of Waterschap Drents Overijsselse Delta, "not a drop more can be added." The pumping stations are all running at full power, but still it cannot be prevented that some meadows are flooded. Despite the high water, safety is nowhere in question, reports the Union of Water Boards. "The dikes are in order. We don't see any problems there," said spokesman Jurjen Jongepier. "But that does not mean there is no nuisance in various places," he says. The water boards continue to collect and pump away as much water as possible. "But the water system and the soil are saturated. So when more water comes in, you can't get rid of it in the ground, in the ditches or in a river because those are already full. So then it's really searching for where you can still get rid of it."

The Rivierenland Water Board, whose responsibilities include the Betuwe region, also notices seepage. "The high river levels are pushing up groundwater. About a third of the water we pump out is seepage water. On top of that, the Betuwe is like a bathtub between the rivers. Near Tiel, the water level of the Waal is about four meters higher than the dry inner dike area."



Eleven water boards have "scaled up. Especially in the east, extra people and resources were deployed. Water levels have been measured around the Regge, Dinkel and Vecht rivers that occur once every ten years. The water boards continue to work day and night to channel the water and drain it as quickly as possible. On Thursday, a high water peak of about 14.70 meters above sea level is expected at Lobith. This will move across the rivers through the Netherlands in the following days.

Rain is also predicted for the next few days. "It then depends on how much you have been able to pump out in the interim whether that will cause problems again," said Jongepier. "We take into account that the water levels will rise some more and the rivers will widen in places." The IJsselmeer, also called "the national rain barrel" by water managers, is so full that extra water is now being drained into the Wadden Sea, via the locks in the Afsluitdijk. Incidentally, Lisanne Verheijen, spokesperson for Rijkswaterstaat, stresses that water safety in the Netherlands has not been compromised. "This kind of high water occurs more often in winter - that's why we have floodplains."

[Dargo]

There have been bigger problems in Germany in recent days. In the town of Rodenberg, in the state of Lower Saxony, residents were awakened by sirens and volunteers from the municipality during the night from Saturday to Sunday, as the water began to burst its banks. In Leer, near Winschoten, Groningen, hundreds of emergency workers were busy with sandbags to stabilize a dike on Boxing Day. The dike is "like pudding," a fire department spokesman told German news channel Tagesschau, though the situation is now under control, according to authorities. Residents have been asked to prepare for possible evacuation, however. Residents in some other villages in the region have already been evacuated.

News medium ARD reports that authorities in Lower Saxony fear dike breaches and further flooding in more places. Even in Germany, the worst is probably not over yet: in the coming days, most weather agencies are again predicting a lot of rain. Some of this will flow back into the Netherlands via Germany, including via the Rhine. Only around New Year's, the Department of Public Works expects a visible drop in water levels in most rivers. The high water probably peaks sometime between Wednesday afternoon and Thursday evening.

[Skybird]

One of the critical hotspots in Germany: the Okertal dam near Braunschweig. According to the company, its filled to "103%", by tendency still filling up. They now opened all emergency valves to release not the maximum of 16 qubic meters per second, bit 30 qubic meters. Braunschweig below the dam thus expects a floodwave, but nobody can excactly say how serious it will be. The water is near the upper rim, threatening to simply swap over. Throughout Germany, falling water levels are expected not before some more days have passed even if it would stop to rain (and it stopped only in parts of the country, not everywhere), because the ground is fully soaked up.






Did a bike tour this afternoon, got mblocked by water at three route directions and where I epxected it to be after the experience nine years ago, to my surprise in all three areas the wate reached farther anbd thje barriers began earlier than 9 years ago, this came really unexpected.



BTW, I'm fine so no worries, all under control right in my place and area. Münster is not in the headlines, but its outskirts and satellite villages are affected, especially in the south-east. One of these villages is off the electric grid since several days and now is totally under water. In the bike video I mentioned, where the ride is along the river Werse through the forest, in ports I would now drive in 1.5-2 meter deep water if doing the same tour again. The whole forest has disappeared. The Dortmund Ems channel is filled up to the upper rim, I have never seen that in 23 years I live here.

[Moonlight]

We had the same thing happening in England of 2010 I think it was, it turned out it was because of not dredging the waterways, rivers and canals are an important infrastructure that has to keep being dredged whether you want to do it or not, politicians don't realise this until something like floods happen.

Have your politicians been diverting money for dredging the waterways elsewhere or have you never done any?, from what I've seen in this thread it looks like those politicians of yours need to take most of the blame for these floods in Germany.