Demolition work on the Carolabrücke bridge, according to the morning statement of the spokesman of the Dresden fire department, Michael Klahre, is going at full speed. “We are making really good progress,” he said at the press conference.
The Carolabrücke bridge, one of the most important traffic arteries in the Saxon metropolis, consisted of three parts marked A, B and C. Cars drove on parts A and B, on part C there were tram tracks and a sidewalk. On Wednesday, a hundred-meter section of bridge section C collapsed unexpectedly. On Friday, another section of section C collapsed during demolition. It is the debris of the second section, which did not fall into the Elbe, but onto the ground, that firefighters are now trying to remove. Two rescue tanks of the Bundeswehr also help with this.
According to Klahre, the firefighters want to remove as much debris as possible by Sunday, when a flood wave is expected to come down the Elbe from the Czech Republic. According to the current information of the regional flood center, the Elbe could reach the first flood stage on Saturday evening at the water gauge in Schön on the border with the Czech Republic. On Sunday morning, the level will be similarly elevated in Dresden. The culmination is now expected at the Saxon measuring stations from Wednesday to Thursday next week.
It is only raining in some parts of Saxony today, but even there the rain should stop during the day. It should start raining again on Sunday. The threat of floods for this East German state is primarily water that comes down the Elbe and Lužické Nisa from the Czech Republic.
According to the Bavarian Radio (BR) website, residents of the south-eastern part of Bavaria, especially in the Bavarian Forest, i.e. the German part of Šumava, and around Passau must expect heavy rain or snow until Sunday. In these areas, rescue services are also preparing for the possibility of flooding. Meteorologists, according to BR, speak of a “significant onset of winter” in the case of the Alps, which, according to them, is “a bit unusual” for this time of year. It could already snow from 1000 meters above sea level. According to current forecasts, the rain in southeastern Bavaria will stop on Wednesday at the earliest.
