Residents of the German state of Bavaria are still on alert as the southern region of the country is hit by severe flooding.
Water levels remained high on Wednesday, especially in eastern Bavaria along the Danube, although there were slight falls initially.
In the neighboring state of Baden-Württemberg, on the other hand, the water level slowly returned to normal.
In recent days, several places in southern Germany have seen the kind of rain they statistically only see every 50 to 100 years.
A fourth flood victim was found in Bavaria on Wednesday. The body of the 79-year-old woman was discovered on Wednesday in a canal in the Swabia region. She was reported missing on Sunday.
The discovery brought the total number of deaths in the floods in southern Germany to six.
The search for a missing firefighter in western Bavaria continued on Wednesday, police said. The young man capsized in a lifeboat in Offingen on Saturday evening.
There is still hope that he will be found alive, the police spokesman said. “But the chances are getting a little smaller every day.”
The Flood Information Service (HND) said the level of the River Danube in the area is still above 6 meters – normally it is about 3 meters.
On Tuesday evening, emergency services evacuated about thirty houses along a road along the river because the surface was becoming softer due to the high groundwater level.
The stabilization of the protective walls will remain the focus of disaster response on Wednesday, the spokeswoman said. “That’s our weak point.”
In Passau, near the border with Austria and the Czech Republic, the water level on the Danube and the Inn river slowly fell on Wednesday.
