Wednesday, June 05, 2024

CLIMATE CRISIS IS  CRISIS OF CAPITALI$M
Austria closes Danube for shipping as deadly floods spread across central Europe

dpa (www.dpa.de). 
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By Euronews with AP
Published on 05/06/2024 - 

Flooding caused by torrential rain that killed five people in Germany over the weekend has spread across Austria and Hungary overnight Tuesday.


The entire Danube in Austria has been closed after its banks burst in Linz, the country's third-largest city.

The river, which flows over 350 kilometres of Austria, was shut down for shipping after heavy rainfall caused floods in both Austria and Germany.

The decision to close comes after flooding turned deadly in southern Germany on the weekend, where five people were killed.


Police confirmed on Tuesday that a woman's body was recovered from a car that sank into floodwater in Bavaria.

The woman was found in the town of Markt Rettenbach after ignoring barriers blocking a flooded road on Monday and driving off the road into a field.

The bodies of four other people who died in the floods were found on Sunday and Monday, three of them in basements.

A 22-year-old firefighter was killed during a rescue operation.

The old town is flooded by the Danube in Passau, Germany, Tuesday June 4, 2024. 
Armin Weigel/(c) Copyright 2024, dpa (www.dpa.de). Alle Rechte vorbehalten

The German DWD weather service declared the rainfall, which has hit southern Germany for days, had ended on Tuesday. Water levels remain at high levels, however.

Markus Söder, the minister-president of Bavaria, has announced that the state government will provide those affected with at least €100 million in financial aid. He declared the as "serious."

At least five dead in floods in southern Germany as situation remains critical

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited the impacted areas on Tuesday, saying it was the fourth time this year he was on a similar mission.

He added the German government "will do everything we can, including using the possibilities offered by the federal government, to ensure that help can be provided quickly."

The weather has also impacted nearby Hungary and Poland, which both predicted heavy rainfall in the coming days.


Reconstruction After Floods in Thessaly to Cost €3.5 Billion, Mitsotakis Says

ByTasos Kokkinidis
June 5, 2024
Mitsotakis is briefed at the newly established Regional Center for Civil Protection Operations of Thessaly. Credit: Press Office of the Greek PM

The cost of rebuilding Thessaly in central Greece after last year’s destructive floods, which killed 17 people, will reach 3.5 billion euros, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Tuesday.

In September 2023, Storm Daniel deluged Thessaly, one of Greece’s breadbaskets, destroying homes, businesses and infrastructure.

“It was essentially the biggest natural disaster that the Greek state had to manage in its history and our estimate is that the total cost of the reconstruction of Thessaly will exceed 3.5 billion euros,” Mitsotakis said during Tuesday’s visit to the region, adding that the state is more prepared than in the past to deal with its financial aftermath.

“If this natural disaster found us in another economic situation, things would certainly be much more difficult,” he said.

Mitsotakis opened the Regional Center for Civil Protection Operations of Thessaly and the new facilities of the Regional Fire Administration of Thessaly.

“The regional coordination center, gives us much greater operational readiness and, most importantly, a much better insight into the real conditions in the field,” the Greek PM said.

“Our government is making a great effort to strengthen Civil Protection in the country, spending more than 2 billion euros, primarily of European resources, to strengthen Civil Protection infrastructure,” he added.

Proposals to deal with the Thessaly floods

Dutch experts have proposed massive infrastructure works, including the relocation of entire villages, in Greece’s Thessaly Plain to prevent future floods.

After the deadly floods of last September in Thessaly Greece requested the assistance of the Dutch experts of HVA, an agricultural development & asset management company with experience of mega projects around the globe.

The Netherlands has developed know-how during its constant battle with the sea and the management of the waters of the River Rhine.

It proposes, among other things a series of measures such as controlled flooding, relocation of villages and agricultural land, building dams, opening tributaries and changing agricultural production.

HVA’s scientists who spent weeks examining the Thessaly Basin say that work should be completed within six years.

They warn that the region is facing the risk of completely exhausting its water reserves. They also say that inhabitants should get used to phenomena such as the Mediterranean cyclones that hit twice in the last three years.

“The inhabitants of Thessaly also have to accept”, say the Dutch scientists, “as the inhabitants of other European countries have been forced to do after severe floods, that some areas will have to be ceded to give space to the rivers.”

They propose that more space must be given to the three main rivers in Thessaly: AcheloosPinios, and also Litheos, which cross the city of Trikala.

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