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Germany offers €500,000 to aid storm victims in Burma

Germany will direct €500,000 ($777,000) in aid to victims of a tropical cyclone in Burma amid reports on Tuesday of at least 22,000 people dead and 41,000 missing.

Published: 6 May 2008 14:45 CEST
Germany offers €500,000 to aid storm victims in Burma
Thai air force officers load food aid for Burma. Photo: DPA

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier appealed to the military regime that governs Burma, known under its military rulers as Myanmar, to cooperate with international aid organizations in a statement issued on Monday from Berlin.

“The cyclone Nargis is just one more heavy blow of fate for the sorely afflicted people of Myanmar,” Steinmeier said.

“German help is standing ready. Together with German aid organizations and international partners we are currently assessing where we can help most effectively.”

German aid is part of a European Union package of €2 million in initial aid announced on Monday after the Burmese government asked for international aid – a change from its stance after the 2004 tsunami, when it rejected help from abroad. The United States also offered $250,000 on Monday.

The German funding is to be targeted toward drinking water, emergency shelters, household items and mosquito nets, according to the German foreign office.

Nargis tore through Burma on Saturday, surprising a population with little access to radio, television or other news. Aid organizations estimate up to 1 million people may have lost their homes.

“Friends told us we should stay home because something was coming,” Heinrich Schoeneich, of Munich, told German press agency DPA of the situation in the Burmese capital of Rangoon the night before the storm. “I think that warnings did take place, but not to the degree there could have been.”

Schoeneich had spent two weeks in the mountains of central Burma as part of a team of German doctors.

Carsten Schmidt, manager of a travel bureau in Rangoon, described a scene of residents hacking away with axes and machetes at debris clogging the city’s streets. Schmidt said 70 to 80 percent of the city’s trees had been uprooted.

“The biggest problem is that there is no electricity or running water,” Schmidt told DPA, adding that residents stood in line with buckets in front of his office to get water from his generator-operated pump.

“But when the diesel is all gone, the pump will be useless,” he said.

FLOODS

German communities brace for flooding as water levels continue to rise

Water levels on the Elbe and Oder rivers in Germany are rising, sparking preparations for floods as the clean-up across central Europe gets underway.

Published: 19 September 2024 10:12 CEST
German communities brace for flooding as water levels continue to rise

As several countries in Europe face the devastating aftermath of severe flooding following torrential rain, communities in some regions of Germany are trying to manage rising water levels. 

According to a forecast by the state flood centre, the water on the Elbe river has not yet reached expected peaks. In the city of Dresden, the Elbe rose above the six-metre mark on Wednesday. There, as well as in Schöna on the border with the Czech Republic, the flood peak is expected on Thursday.

There is a cautious all-clear along other rivers in the east and south of Germany. Further north, however, Brandenburg is looking anxiously at the Oder river, which is expected to bring more water in the coming days.

READ ALSO: Parts of Germany hit by flooding as torrential rain wreaks havoc across central Europe

Flood crisis teams are due to meet in Frankfurt (Oder), located at the border with Poland, and other municipalities in Brandenburg on Thursday. A level 1 flood alert was issued for sections of the river on Wednesday.

According to the State Office for the Environment, floodplains and meadows close to the banks are expected to start flooding, with the areas of the Oder village of Ratzdorf to Eisenhüttenstadt particularly affected.

The state office believes the highest alert level – level 4 – with a water level of around six metres will be reached in the next few days near Ratzdorf, where the Oder reaches Brandenburg territory.

Clean-up work underway in central and eastern Europe

In the flood-hit areas from Poland to the Czech Republic and Austria, the clean-up work has now begun, but the situation is only slowly easing.

In many places, the emergency services are still struggling with masses of water. Soldiers are also providing support in Poland and the Czech Republic. However, the authorities are not yet giving the all-clear. So far, more than 20 people have tragically lost their lives in the region due to the extreme weather.

In the Polish city of Wroclaw in the west of the country, the flood wave was not expected until Thursday night. As several tributaries that also carry a lot of water flow into the Oder between Olawa and Wroclaw, the possibility of flooding in the Lower Silesian metropolis cannot be ruled out, said an expert.

Flooding in Bresgau Poland

A drone captures the high water levels in Bresgau, Poland, on September 19th. Photo: picture alliance/dpa/PAP | Maciej Kulczynski

Flood defences in Wroclaw have been reinforced as a precautionary measure. One third of the city of 630,000 inhabitants was flooded during the Oder flood in 1997.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is expected to visit Poland on Thursday afternoon. According to the EU Commission, the trip is being organised at the invitation of Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala, his Slovakian counterpart Robert Fico and Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer are also expected to attend the meeting.

The talks are likely to focus on the question of funds from Brussels for reconstruction although the extent of the damage is still unclear.

With reporting from DPA

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