Germany braces for flood impact

BERLIN - German officials say they are confident reinforced dikes will hold as flooding on the Oder river along the border with Poland approaches its peak.

Flooding from southwestern Poland has been advancing downstream to the border region.

Brandenburg state's interior minister, Rainer Speer, said flood defenses - already reinforced after flooding in 1997 - had been bolstered by thousands of sandbags.

Speer said Thursday he expected the water level to remain high for two or three days before falling, and he expected the dikes could handle it.

Poland has seen the worst of flooding in central Europe over the past two weeks, with 15 deaths reported.

The worst now appears to be over, with water levels receding on the Vistula river which runs through Warsaw.

The flood wave in the Vistula reached the northern coast and entered the Baltic Sea, taking pressure off communities downstream.

The government said no dikes had broken and no rivers spilled banks over the past day, and there also was no rainfall.

Associated Press

(China Daily 05/28/2010 page12)