Towns reinforce dikes as heavy rains hit Germany, Netherlands

FRANKFURT, Germany – Firefighters and volunteers worked to reinforce dikes against rising floodwaters in northern and eastern Germany as heavy rains falling on already soaked ground pushed rivers and streams over their banks and forced several towns to evacuate residents.

The city of Braunschweig in Lower Saxony deployed an artificial dike – a long tube filled with water from the rising river – to protect its downtown area, while several hundred residents of Windehausen in the Thuringia region were told to leave their homes as the town lost power, the dpa news agency reported.

Hundreds of volunteers joined firefighters to pack sandbags atop weakened flood-control berms in Uplengen, near Bremen in northern Germany.

Several flood plains were also underwater Tuesday in the eastern Netherlands. Rivers surged, causing localized flooding, and some temporary dikes were being built with large sandbags. The various branches of the Rhine that flow through the Netherlands are expected to peak on Thursday.