Nicolas Bock – Disaster Research Blog

The Winter Flood 2023/24 – Behavior of the Population and Crisis Communication: Lessons to Learn

By: Nicolas Bock, Cordula Dittmer, Verena Flörchinger und Peter Windsheimer

Original version (German) published: July 26, 2024

Translated version published: September 25, 2024

http://dx.doi.org/10.17169/refubium-45310

In the last weeks of 2023, Germany experienced widespread flooding, particularly in the state of Lower Saxony, but also in parts of Thuringia, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and western Germany. The peak of these winter floods occurred during the Christmas holidays and New Year’s. While winter floods (e.g., along the Rhine) are not uncommon, the winter floods of 2023/24 were complicated by a combination of snowmelt, saturated soil, overflowing reservoirs, prolonged rain, and waterlogged dikes, making crisis management more difficult (Müller-Tischer 2024). The situation worsened with the arrival of frost after the weather calmed down. While the frost-hardened ground allowed heavy equipment to reach the dikes, the frozen water in the dikes posed the risk of frost breaks, and some of the equipment was partially limited in its effectiveness (Müller-Tischer 2024).

KFS research on heavy rainfall events in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate in 2021 – 1 year later

Katastrophenforschungsstelle (KFS); numerous Authors

Original German version published on July 15, 2022

Translated version published July 30, 2024

“Not everyone is here in the same now. They are only there on the outside, in that they can be seen today. But this does not mean that they live with the others at the same time. Rather, they carry something from the past with them, which interferes” (translated quote from Bloch 1973: 104)

Immediately after the devastating heavy rainfall events in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate in July 2021, the Disaster Research Centre (KFS) at Freie Universität Berlin published a short statement on the contribution that the KFS has made so far in research projects for the analysis of various flood and heavy rainfall events in the past and how these could also be taken up in current research projects as part of the reappraisal. On the anniversary of the events, the following blog post takes stock of further work carried out since then and presents preliminary results[1].

Das Winterhochwasser 2023/24 – Verhalten der Bevölkerung und Krisenkommunikation: Lessons to Learn

Von Nicolas Bock, Cordula Dittmer, Verena Flörchinger und Peter Windsheimer

26. Juli 2024

http://dx.doi.org/10.17169/refubium-45310

In den letzten Wochen des Jahres 2023 kam es in Deutschland, insbesondere im Bundesland Niedersachsen, aber auch in Teilen Thüringens, Sachsens, Sachsen-Anhalts und im Westen Deutschlands zu großflächigen Überflutungen. Die Hochphase dieses Winterhochwassers fiel über die Weihnachtsfeiertage sowie Silvester. Winterhochwasser (z. B. am Rhein) sind keine Seltenheit, allerdings hatte man es bei den Winterhochwassern 2023/24 mit einer Kombination von Schneeschmelze, gesättigten Böden, volllaufenden Talsperren, langanhaltendem Regen und vollgesogenen Deichen zu tun, was die Lagebewältigung erschwerte (Müller-Tischer 2024). Durch den nach Wetterberuhigung eintretenden Frost verschärfte sich die Lage nochmals. Die Anfahrt an die Deiche mit schwerem Gerät war durch den frostharten Boden zwar möglich, gefrorenes Wasser in den Deichen barg allerdings die Gefahr von Frostbrüchen und die Einsatzmittel waren teilweisen in ihrer Tauglichkeit eingeschränkt (Müller-Tischer 2024).

⇒ Continue Reading