Haltickling
2nd Level Green Feather
- Joined
- Apr 3, 2001
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While America groans under a heat wave, large parts of Central Europe have been suffering from the biggest floods in centuries for almost a week now. The whole precipitation amount of two months came down within a few days. The historic city centers of Dresden and Prague were under water, the flood in the streets there was up to 10 ft. and crushed through the ground floor windows. Several regions in Bavaria, Saxonia, Austria, and the Czech Republic have been hit worst. Luckily, there have been only about 20 casualties so far, but thousands of homes and existences have been destroyed.
Today, a chemical plant in the Czech Republic was flooded after a dam burst; quicksilver and dioxine were washed into the River Elbe which flows through Dresden and Hamburg as well. Right now while I'm writing this, the whole town of Bitterfeld (ca. 16,000 inhabitants) is evacuated as another dam-burst threatens 350(!) chemical plants in that area.
There have always been floods in some regions, so the population there is prepared. The main problem is that this time, the flood has hit areas which have never experienced a flood in their history. For example, the village where I was born (20 miles outside Munich) was completely flooded last Sunday, and still not accessible on the road because the rain caused many landslides. It's written history goes back 1200 years, and there's never been a flood before. The River Elbe in Dresden usually measures a depth of 6 ft, and their worst floods went up to 15 ft, but this time it is 40 ft high. Completely unprecedented.
Meteorologists are predicting even worse floods for the future, due to the global warming effect. And this is caused by the hothouse gasses from industry and cars. It's about time we care a bit more for our environment!
Today, a chemical plant in the Czech Republic was flooded after a dam burst; quicksilver and dioxine were washed into the River Elbe which flows through Dresden and Hamburg as well. Right now while I'm writing this, the whole town of Bitterfeld (ca. 16,000 inhabitants) is evacuated as another dam-burst threatens 350(!) chemical plants in that area.
There have always been floods in some regions, so the population there is prepared. The main problem is that this time, the flood has hit areas which have never experienced a flood in their history. For example, the village where I was born (20 miles outside Munich) was completely flooded last Sunday, and still not accessible on the road because the rain caused many landslides. It's written history goes back 1200 years, and there's never been a flood before. The River Elbe in Dresden usually measures a depth of 6 ft, and their worst floods went up to 15 ft, but this time it is 40 ft high. Completely unprecedented.
Meteorologists are predicting even worse floods for the future, due to the global warming effect. And this is caused by the hothouse gasses from industry and cars. It's about time we care a bit more for our environment!
