River breaches levee in Germany

Weeks of heavy rain this spring have sent the Elbe, the Danube and other rivers such as the Vltava and the Saale overflowing their banks, causing extensive damage in central and southern Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia and Hungary. The top of this vacation cabin is all that’s visible above high water.

Jens Buettner/Associated Press

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Weeks of heavy rain this spring have sent the Elbe, the Danube and other rivers such as the Vltava and the Saale overflowing their banks, causing extensive damage in central and southern Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia and Hungary. The top of this vacation cabin is all that’s visible above high water.

Jens Buettner/Associated Press

BERLIN – The swollen Elbe River breached another levee early Monday on its relentless march toward the North Sea, forcing German authorities to evacuate 10 villages and shut down one of the country’s main railway routes.

As the surge from the Elbe pushed into rural eastern Germany, there was some relief farther upstream as the river slipped back from record levels in Magdeburg, the capital of Saxony-Anhalt state.

To the south, the Danube hit a record high Sunday evening in the Hungarian capital, Budapest, then began to ease back Monday. Officials said the city escaped significant damage, and Prime Minister Viktor Orban said soldiers and rescue workers would shift their focus farther south.

Weeks of heavy rain this spring have sent the Elbe, the Danube and other rivers such as the Vltava and the Saale overflowing their banks, causing extensive damage in central and southern Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia and Hungary. At least 22 flood-related deaths have been reported.

The German city of Magdeburg grappled over the weekend with water levels more than 16 feet above normal, but the Elbe retreated by about a foot Monday. More than 23,000 residents had to leave their homes Sunday. Officials said an electricity substation in the city was no longer in danger of flooding – which would have made the situation worse by cutting off power to the drainage pumps.Farther downstream, a levee at Fischbeck, west of Berlin, was breached overnight, prompting officials to evacuate 10 nearby villages .Germany’s national railway said it had to close a bridge near Fischbeck that is used by trains linking Berlin to Cologne, Frankfurt and Amsterdam. Some trains were being diverted via other bridges to the north and south, causing significant delays, and others were canceled.

The low-lying district of Lauenburg, a town east of Hamburg, was evacuated as authorities prepared for waters to peak this week.

Soldiers and volunteers have worked frantically during the last week to fill sandbags and reinforce flood defenses across central Europe.Even with all those efforts, “we should accept that we humans should be humble, that even in the 21st century we don’t completely control nature – that is one lesson from this situation,” Saxony-Anhalt’s interior minister, Holger Stahlknecht, told ZDF television.