2,000 people evacuated in Germany. This is the biggest natural disaster in years
12:16 PM EDT, October 21, 2023, updated: 3:21 AM EDT, October 23, 2023
About 2,000 people had to be evacuated in Schleswig-Holstein due to a storm on the Baltic Sea. Among the places flooded were Flensburg and Lübeck. At least one person died. The services are talking about damages in the hundreds of millions of euros.
A storm surge in the Baltic Sea hit Schleswig-Holstein particularly hard. 2000 people were rescued from flooding - reports public broadcaster NDR.
Flooding also occurred in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Fallen trees are blocking roads, basements are flooded, and smaller flood barriers have also been breached.
A storm warning is in effect for the entire Baltic Sea coast. In Flensburg, a once in a century water level has been recorded. Around 6 PM Eastern Time, the water level in the city rose to 7.4 feet above the average water level, reported a spokeswoman from the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH) in Rostock. "The last time such a flood occurred was in 1904," said Ines Perlet-Markus from BSH. At that time, it was 7.3 feet.
A 33-year-old woman died on the Baltic island of Fehmarn in Schleswig-Holstein as a result of a storm when a tree knocked down by the storm hit her car on Friday afternoon.
- As far as we know, at this time we don't have any (information) about people who have drowned - the head of the rescue services in the Schleswig-Holstein state interior ministry Ralf Kirchhoff, as quoted by the weekly magazine "Spiegel".
In Flensburg, one of the firefighters was also injured. Over 2000 emergency services were involved in the battle with the elements. Some households are still without power.
"Broken shafts in Denmark"
The storm surge also caused power outages and evacuations on the popular vacation coasts in the south and east of Denmark. According to the police, one of the flood barriers near Haderslev was breached. In southern Jutlandia, some areas were also without power on Saturday morning.
However, there is no information about the victims.
The weather is expected to improve only on Monday.
