h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Ok, you say it isn't a catastrophy. But it looked quite like that, on TV!

Well, it depends ...

on what you consider to be a catastrophy. The Crisis Management Committee (CMC) has thought about officially declaring it a catastrophy. This would have offered the opportunity to call the army (engineers etc ...) for help. On the other hand, it would have caused many catastrophy sightseeing people to the town, standing in the way of those who really *have* to work. Even worse, it would have called many more TV networks with their "reality TV" helicopters. We had that 3 years ago.

The water level was about 20cm higher (8") than in 1999. But the damage was even less. Seems that all those who still have properties in the endangered areas have learned their lessons. The "Gruener Baum" Wirtshaus had about 1 1/2 ft of Danube water in its front and back room, and about 8" in the kitchen. One day later I could have my usual lunch there, no problem at all.

... and once again you've been struck

Time to start growing rice, or?

Oh boy, this time it's going to be tough. We have hundreds of volunteers here in Passau who work like mad, but in the end it's never man who stops the struggle. It's always the water that says "OK, that's it for this time. See you next spring ..."

It's a really depressing view. The church where I married my wife is flooded, so is the surrounding cemetery with our family grave. The playground where our daughter loves to go is flooded, I hardly could find my way to work. Even most of those secret shortcuts ("Schleichwege", as we call them) cannot be used. When we had the flood in spring 1999, I used my bike to come to work. On one of the streets there were about one an a half feet of water, but with hardly any current. Today the very same street is covered with app. 4-5 feet of water, and the current is really strong.

There's going to be a lot of damage this time, I'm afraid. And unfortunately every single drop of rain that falls somewhere between the Brenner pass and the Bavarian Forest will finally have to come to Passau. That's how it is. If there's a flooding in Traunstein, one in Regensburg and one in Augsburg, we're going to have all three of them sooner or later (plus the one we already have ourselves).

Er, do you still have that webcam somewhere? I remeber you had some link once...
They are evacuating Prague, Vltava is far too high. Gives me something to talk about over the radio.

The link is

http://www.kmz.de/webcam/webcam2.htm

Unfortunately the flood seems to have affected the refreshing interval of that cam. It still shows the situation of 5:30 am.

Message to moderators: This is a link to a webcam in the city hall of Passau. As Passau is currently flooded rather severely, this link might be of some interest for some researchers. Please keep it in. Thanks.

Jeremy

Thank you. Looks more like Venice though...

You'll find some more pics at the following fotango album:

http://www.fotango.com/cgi-bin/vpi.cgi?S_ID=164368&P_W=87153

Share and Enjoy (??)

Jeremy

Impressive!

And I think that when I retire of maybe even a little earlier I have to visit this town, it is so beautiful. Even if under water.

I too thought of Venice. Frightening!