The fight against the record floods that have struck Germany over the last two weeks is largely over, with rivers having returned to their banks and clean-up well underway. But in one part of the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, the battle continued over the weekend -- and it was one in which authorities were forced to come up with an unorthodox method to plug a breach in an Elbe River dike just east of Berlin.
On Saturday, two barges were sunk using explosives at a gap in a levee in an attempt to stop floodwaters from continuing to flow into the countryside. On Sunday, an additional barge was sunk at the site to block up the final 20 meters (66 feet) of the 90 meter breach. Helicopters carrying oversized sandbags and pieces of concrete then filled in around the sunken boats. Officials on Sunday evening said that the gap had been 80 percent sealed as a result of the operation.
The spectacular fix became necessary after the dike gave way last week, flooding several small towns behind the dike and resulting in thousands of people being evacuated. Now that the water has ceased flowing from the swollen Elbe through the gap in the levee, the flooded area behind it has begun to slowly shrink. Still, some 145 square kilometers of land (56 square miles) remain under water.
'Power to Stop the Water'
It was the first time ever in Germany that sunken ships were used to plug a hole in a dike. The barges were carefully maneuvered into place before explosives on board were detonated so as to ground the craft. Then, several helicopters began flying gigantic sacks of sand to the site to prevent the barges from drifting away.
"It was an extremely difficult and risky operation," Saxony-Anhalt Governor Reiner Haselhoff told German news agency DPA. "But we had to do something and to try everything in our power to stop the water."
Captain Thomas Peter, who maneuvered the barges into position, said: "We'd never done such a thing before. But we're not crazy. We were able to half-way assess the situation."
Elsewhere on the Elbe River on Monday, officials reported that water levels were well down from their peaks and were continuing to drop.
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It had never been tried before in Germany. But this weekend, three barges were sunk in a desparate effort to plug a gap in a dike on the Elbe River after flood waters had spent days rushing through the breach. Two barges were sunk on Saturday with a third following on Sunday.
The barges were brought into position before they were set aground using explosives. Here, smoke rises as one of them is sunk aground on Saturday.
After they were set aground, helicopters began filling the barges with gigantic sacks of sand so that they stayed in place. Here, the dire effects of the breach in the dike for the village of Fischbeck can clearly be seen.
The two barges sunk on Saturday proved insufficient. A third was sunk on Sunday. Officials on Sunday night said that they had managed to reduce the flow of water through the breach by 80 percent.
It was important to quickly fill the barges with sandbags so as to weigh them down and prevent them from shifting. Military and federal police helicopters were brought in for the job.
As a result of the breach in the dike, which took place last week, some 150 square kilometers of land was flooded. Now that the break has been largely fixed, the water is beginning to slowly recede.
Fischbeck wasn't the only town that was flooded as a result of the break in the dike, as this image clearly shows.
The water had been flowing into the Saxony-Anhalt hinterlands for days. "It was an extremely difficult and risky operation," Saxony-Anhalt Governor Reiner Haselhoff told German news agency DPA of sinking the barges into the breach. "But we had to do something and to try everything in our power to stop the water."
While flooding would have been bad enough without the breach of the dike near Fischbeck, it made the situation dramatically worse. Here, floodwaters can be seen near Fischbeck over the weekend.
Several towns and villages along the Elbe are now beginning to clean up after some of the worst flooding they have ever seen.
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