Major clean-up after heavy storm surge in northern Germany Has Hamas received money from Switzerland? The federal public prosecutor’s office opens criminal proceedings

The water has receded again, most roads are clear again – the major clean-up is now starting on the coast. After the heavy storm surge with record levels, the emergency services still have a lot of work to do. The Schleswig-Holstein State Fire Brigade Association said on Saturday that the cleaning, repair and reconstruction work would likely take a long time.

The damage caused by the storm and flooding could not yet be precisely quantified last weekend. The head of the Ministry of Interior’s disaster management staff estimated the damage in the three-digit million range. Immediately after the flooding subsided, clean-up work began on Saturday in affected towns and communities from Flensburg to Lübeck and Rügen.

The floods forced countless people to leave their homes, according to the fire brigade alone, 2,000 in Schleswig-Holstein alone. On Friday, a woman died in the storm on Fehmarn. Mecklenburg-Vorpommern escaped with lower water levels and less damage. However, a protective wall in Wieck am Darss was damaged in two places over a length of 30 meters. Early on Saturday evening, however, a spokeswoman for the Vorpommern-Rügen district announced that the water level in the Bodden was slowly decreasing.

Flensburg experienced a once-in-a-century flood, with water levels reaching 2.27 meters above normal overnight, according to the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH). Parts of the port area were flooded. A similarly high value was last measured in Flensburg in 1904 at 2.23 meters. For safety reasons, the municipal utilities have cut off electricity in the affected areas in the port.

In Ostholstein, several beach walls were breached and dikes were damaged by the floods. Dikes broke through at Maasholm and Arnis on the Schlei and south of the port of Olpenitz, and a dike in Damp could also not be maintained. In Schleswig the harbor was flooded and the electricity was cut off. Pleasure boats sank in some ports.

The Prime Minister of Schleswig-Holstein, Daniel Günther, thanked the more than 2,000 emergency services. “We are really grateful to everyone who helped during these hours,” the CDU politician said on Saturday. “Schleswig-Holstein stood together in the face of this terrible flood disaster.”

Günther received, among other things, an overview of the damage in his hometown of Eckernförde. According to rescue control centers, areas affected by the storm surge on Sunday night remained calm. The “high situation” has been overcome, a spokesperson for the Vorpommern-Rügen control center said on Sunday morning.

A fatal accident occurred during a storm on the Baltic Sea island of Fehmarn on Friday afternoon. A 33-year-old woman was killed in her car by a falling tree. (sda/dpa)