Xaver

 

Gear wheels with cobwebs at the Speicherstadt, Hamburg, September 2013

The people in Hamburg will have a rough night tonight. Nothing like the mild evening as pictured here.

The city will be ready when the storm flood caused by Xaver, the storm, will hit Germany's second largest city tonight. For the inhabitants of Hamburg this event is nothing extraordinary at all. Storm floods happen from time to time, mostly during the winter months. This time the storm flood will be very severe, with water levels way above the normal level of the river Elbe.

The whole development project "Harbour City" right at the river Elbe has been built on safe grounds, well, rather heights than grounds. After the storm flood in 1962 developers had to calculate with flood events. Water as high as 5 meters above normal level should be no problem. At least that's what the experts kept saying today.

These containers have been accompanying the Elbphilharmonie-lot longer than projected. I wonder if they already shut down the construction site until further notice? Would those containers be a safe place for a lunch break? Probably NOT. Schools have been closed in Hamburg today. Gruner+Jahr, one of the biggest publishers in Germany, probably Europe, asked all employees to leave work and go home in the early afternoon, it was getting risky.

The building below belongs to the harbour authority (police? I think so!) and is going to be flooded if not flooded already. The flood protection structure starts behind this building, which is part of the Speicherstadt.

The flood protection facilities have been partly under construction this summer. It is a major project in the city of Hamburg and consists of walls and doors that close in case of an emergency and dikes that will hopefully resist the water.
In Vienna nasty cold gusts slapped me in my face on my ride home from work while in Glasgow, Scotland, the Central Railwaystation, where I arrived last summer, had to be evacuated, due to debris falling from the broken glass roof. The fact that I could still ride the bike and move forward shows how mild the storm is down here, compared to Northern Europe. No doubt, this year's autumn season finally resigned.

Stay warm and dry!

xo
Paula

PS: Click twice on the photos to find some magnificent details within the photos.
Stairs leading down to the water (picture #2), fine mesh of the metal hoses in picture (picture  #4) Enjoy!