Southern Germany Remains on Flood Alert

The southern German state of Bavaria remained on flood alert on Friday despite falling water levels as residents counted the cost of the damage which is expected to exceed 100 million euros ($122 million). While authorities said they expected the flood waters to recede later in the day, cities in Bavaria continued to take precautions to stop swollen rivers from flooding streets and causing a repeat of the chaos which has already claimed one life in the region. In the city of Regensburg, the Danube rose to levels of 5.6 meters (18 feet) overnight, leaving several quays under water, but it was still one meter lower than the readings during the devastating flooding which hit Germany in 2002. The Benedictine abbey of Weltenburg, the oldest monastery in Bavaria, was saved from water damage by a dam of sandbags which was hastily assembled by monks and emergency workers. The cities of Passau, which is crisscrossed by three rivers, and Ingolstadt appeared to have escaped the devastation caused by torrential rain across central Europe. The only victim of the floods in Germany was a 28-year-old man who drowned when he and two friends went out in a rubber dinghy near the city of Rosenheim.