Thousands leave homes as German floods head north
Date: 23-Aug-02
Country: GERMANY
Author: Marc Elsner
About 20,000 people were leaving their homes in three northern states as flood waters surged down the River Elbe.
Schroeder said 50,000 troops, border police and technical assistance workers were fighting the floods and cleaning up after them, helped by 100,000 volunteers.
"This has been the federal government's biggest deployment in post-war history," Schroeder told a news conference. "We have to brace ourselves for a rise in the number of victims."
Floods caused by unusually heavy rain have killed at least 98 people in Germany, Russia, Austria and the Czech Republic in recent weeks. The floods have driven hundreds of thousands from their homes, ruined harvests and destroyed buildings and roads.
British soldiers based in Germany were helping reinforce dykes, while the U.S. army and Poland donated over 300,000 sandbags. French troops were at work in Dresden and Russian equipment was being used in the eastern state of Brandenburg.
Interior Minister Otto Schily said Germany had been inundated with offers of help from around the world. "Even a not exactly well-off country like Sri Lanka wants to stand by us and has sent tea for the emergency workers," he said.
The damage in the eastern Saxony region, hit hard last week, will exceed 15 billion euros (dollars), officials said. The death toll in Saxony rose to 16 as another body was found.
"The country's economic power is so strong that we'll manage to repair the damage and restore the infrastructure quickly," Schroeder said.
Flood defences were sodden in many places and threatened to break along the northern course of the Elbe, although emergency services said the water was not expected to rise above the dykes other than those protecting the town of Lauenburg.
Officials said the nuclear power plant of Kruemmel and nuclear waste storage site at Gorleben along the Elbe were not endangered as both lay on higher ground.
WHO PAYS?
With a month to go to Germany's general election, the debate over how to fund the clean-up has become a major campaign issue.
Schroeder's centre-left government, trailing the opposition in opinion polls, has said it plans to delay seven billion euros of income tax cuts, due to take effect next January, for a year to free up money for flood repairs.
Conservative challenger Edmund Stoiber, caught off guard on holiday when the floods struck, is keen to show his credentials as a man of the people, arguing that big business rather than small firms and individuals should help foot the bill.
Instead of delaying the tax cut, Stoiber wants the government to reintroduce a tax for businesses on profits made from selling holdings in other firms to boost the relief effort.
Schroeder defended plans to delay the tax cut. "I think people in Germany understand this move," he said. "They have less understanding for a discussion about party politics, which is superfluous and unhelpful."
A survey conducted by the Forsa institute showed 66 percent of those asked supported the government's decision to delay the tax cuts.
HAIRDRESSERS' SOLIDARITY
Germany has seen a surge of solidarity in the wake of the floods, with tens of millions of euros in charity raised in days by ordinary citizens and millionaire sports celebrities alike.
Hairdressers became the latest group to show their solidarity on Tuesday, being asked to donate the price of a perm to a fund to help flood-hit colleagues get back on their feet.
Art lovers around the world have been anxiously following the plight of Dresden, eastern Germany's cultural jewel and home to some of Europe's finest art collections, which was badly hit by the flooding last week.
Museums cleared their vaults as the water started to rise, saving thousands of paintings and sculptures. But the storage rooms themselves and newly-renovated technology such as vital air conditioning systems were ruined.
Dresden's mayor has said the reconstruction of the old city, destr