Water, water everywhere!

[calapine]

We are having a bit of a flood here, including the Danube rising high, so I went out and made a few snapshots:

Location is Linz, Austria (pop. 193k).


Part 1, The Wall
I live in the northern part of the town, so that's where I started my journey:



View from the Nibelungen bridge onto the Danube leaving its bed. Note the traffic sign in the middle of the image: this is supposed to be dry land. Nor is there a wall normally, it's flood protection that has been erected in the last 2-3 days.




Same view, up close. Judging from the sign the water roughly 1.8 meters above road level, which itself is - in normal times - 2 meters higher than the river.




Sea - land border.




Took me a while to find a path down, but here it is. Using the stone blocks as measurement I marked the waterline...it's above my head.




I suppose this is how people in Berlin during the cold war must have felt. The barrier keeps going for about 1 km, after which it ends at higher ground. Besides a few minor leaks, nothing exciting to see. Cudos firemen!

Next up: Part Deux, Beyond the wall. My trip to the southern shore of the Danube where the flooding effects have been more drastic. Unfortunately cut short by me running out of battery, so I'll add it tomorrow (providing the water is still there).

[calapine]

Intermission

Until I leave my flat again, here some press pictures from other parts of Upper Austria:

Town of Melk - Pretty everyone is flooded but the monks of Melk monastery.



Melk - zoomed in.



Less than 2 km from where I grew up: Firemen in Alkoven saving local wildlife.



Massive flooding in the town of Schärding.



Gondoliers in Vendig Firefighters in Schärding.

[Trippy]

Wow.

[KallDrexx]

Um yeah, there's no way in hell I would get that close if I knew that the water on the other side of a temporary barrier was over my head 

[calapine]

I am not a risk taking person normally, but when putting the head of the wall one could actually hear the water gurgling. Which was a bit weird.  

I suppose if it was dangerous the road would have been closed.

[01101010]

I want to come over and take pictures too!

[IainC]

I also live on the Danube, although it's called the Brigach at the point where it flows through my town and doesn't become the Danube for about another 30km or so. It is also much. much higher than usual here but as it's only about 10m across at this point we don't have anything like the kind of stuff that Calapine is dealing with.

[cironian]

Didn't you learn anything from Atlantis? Run, you fools!

[jakonovski]

That's mindboggling. Meantime, in Finland we've been having a countrywide heat wave, all the way to Lapland.

[Sky]

I didn't know there was such a thing as walls that could hold back flood waters. Oh, to live in a civilized modern nation.

[Brofellos]

I visited Melk once (a friend spent high school there) so that was such a shocking photo to see.  This is fascinating stuff.

[Zetor]

Fun times are about to happen in Budapest, too... they're forecasting the biggest flood in 50 years.

Good thing I live on a hill on the Buda side. 

[Merusk]

So have you seen flooding like this in the last century or so, or is this something totally new?  The quick erection of the flood wall seems to imply this was seen before and planned for.  It's definitely not a system that could have been thrown together quickly.

[Bzalthek]

I've never seen water barriers like those before.  Those are pretty neat.  Why does the U.S. still use sand bags again?

[Merusk]

It was good enough for Their Sainted Parents.  Change is bad. Technology is only good if it doesn't cost money. Etc.

[Tebonas]

We had a similar flood 11 years ago (in the same areas), so we weren't hit completely unprepared.

But yes, I guess not starving your government and actually letting them do their job helped as well. Plus volunteer firefighters, lots of them (almost 300 000 out of 8,5 million citizens are in volunteer fire brigades). We can't thank them enough. They are tirelessly doing a tremendous job in such events.

[RhyssaFireheart]

Yeah, those flood walls look awesome, but in the US's defense, a lot f our flooding is on plains/flatlands and on saturated ground, which probably couldn't support the weight of those walls and/or would be difficult to install.  Notice how it looks like they are all attached to concrete barriers at the base rather than standing on the ground?

Those are some crazy pics, Calapine.

[MrHat]

Holy shit.

[Teleku]

Yeah, those walls are cool, but completely impractical everywhere I've lived that's flooded in America.  It looks as though they were put up to fill in gaps in the natural barriers against the river, caused by roads and the such.

Great photos however!  Hope nothing to valuable/ancient gets destroyed.

[ezrast]

Melk looks like a hella idyllic town aside from the damp.

[Bzalthek]

Yeah, that is the state of American ingenuity.  That looks really hard to implement.  Let's put sand in bags and let people drown instead.

[Paelos]

Yeah, that is the state of American ingenuity.  That looks really hard to implement.  Let's put sand in bags and let people drown instead.

The design of American cities and the design of European cities are wildly different.

[Bzalthek]

Case in point: "It's hard"

[Teleku]

Case in point, it's impossible. 

[Spiff]

Well if that doesn't get both of them laid nothing will.

"So Paul what did you do this weekend?"
"Bwah, the usual; Saved some baby deer from drowning, have a look at the pictures."

In fact my cynical self is slightly wondering if they didn't bring the deer themselves, dunked them in and it's all an elaborate ruse!

Honestly though, volunteer firemen: 

[Tebonas]

Not being an expert in US waterways I still doubt it would be impossible. The dutch manage to keep land dry that is under sea level.

The ugly truth is that it is hard and expensive. And there is no visible way to turn a profit out of doing it right.

[Cyrrex]

Well if that doesn't get both of them laid nothing will.

"So Paul what did you do this weekend?"
"Bwah, the usual; Saved some baby deer from drowning, have a look at the pictures."

In fact my cynical self is slightly wondering if they didn't bring the deer themselves, dunked them in and it's all an elaborate ruse!

Honestly though, volunteer firemen: 

While it didn't quite give me the amount of boner that it gave you, I too was moved by this picture.

[Yoru]

Yeah, the flooding is also hitting Swabia pretty hard. The trains through Dresden are chronically delayed. Up here in Berlin, everything's still peachy, for now.

Pretty stunning pictures, especially given that I was in Wien not three weeks ago.

Also:

I suppose if it was dangerous the road would have been closed.

How incredibly Austrian.

[Teleku]

Not being an expert in US waterways I still doubt it would be impossible. The dutch manage to keep land dry that is under sea level.

The ugly truth is that it is hard and expensive. And there is no visible way to turn a profit out of doing it right.

And the Dutch traveled to New Orleans after their flood disaster in the 50's to learn about superior levee systems for living below sea level.   

We're talking about sand bag's vs. these temporary barrier things, which are used for localized flood control.  You're talking about levees and entire flood control infastructure on a vast scale (of which the US has one of the most extensive systems in the world), which is a completely different topic.

Anyways, I agree Yoru. I was in both Vienna and Prague the first week of May, so its crazy to see some of these pictures now.  When I was in Prague, I saw all the random little damns they had crossing the river.  Kind of wondered at the time how they handled high water and flooding.  Now I know!

[Tebonas]

As with everything else, the US has the best system where people are ready to pay for it. They could have an equally good system for localized flood control, but I suspect there is no market for it.

You said it is impossible. I just said I doubt that because there are large scale flood controls in place. You now refuted with "Yes, and New Orleans has one of those".

So, you agree it is possible?

[Bungee]

Downstream from Schärding (my home town), where the Inn (the river that's flooding Schärding), the Danube and the Ilz meet lies a lake formerly known as Passau:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iluy9cx_uxw

[Teleku]

As with everything else, the US has the best system where people are ready to pay for it. They could have an equally good system for localized flood control, but I suspect there is no market for it.

You said it is impossible. I just said I doubt that because there are large scale flood controls in place. You now refuted with "Yes, and New Orleans has one of those".

So, you agree it is possible?

No, I was just pointing out the irony since New Orleans eventually failed catastrophically.

Edit:  Blah, just cutting it all out, will derail discussion to much.  On with the pics!

Come to think of it, I live only a couple hundred yards from the Vistula river here in Warsaw.  I should probably go out and take a glance at its levels considering all the rain we've been getting.  

[Mrbloodworth]

Melk looks like a hella idyllic town aside from the damp.

I agree. US towns are boring in comparison.

[Jeff Kelly]

No, I was just pointing out the irony since New Orleans eventually failed catastrophically.

Well it is not sufficient to build it you also have to maintain it. Since the local and federal government took more and more of those funds away it was only a matter of time until one of the dams or levees failed.

[Jeff Kelly]

Downstream from Schärding (my home town), where the Inn (the river that's flooding Schärding), the Danube and the Ilz meet lies a lake formerly known as Passau:

too soon.