Worse Flooding in Europe

[ysabetwordsmith]

Due to rising waters, floods that used to occur once a century will likely occur once a year or more.  That's about 100 times worse than it used to be on the basis of frequency.  While severity is important too, frequency is a big determiner in people's ability to recover from setbacks.  If they haven't recovered before the next one hits, they take more damage, which tends to be unsustainable.

Comments

[cmcmck]

Our local river, the Severn, is on the rise after flooding in Wales- again!

[thewayne]

When we did the river cruise on the Elbe from Prague to Berlin in '15, we had the opposite problem: we were stuck in Dresden for 3 days due to low water levels. Terrible place to get stuck, having to wander around Dresden and see such hovels. I didn't see it, but others on the cruise reported a person walking from the far bank to the middle of the river with the water coming up most of the way to his chest.

This is the ship we were on, the Theodor Fontaine, as seen from a high perch in the mountains of Saxon Switzerland. The pilot house could be lowered, flush with the deck, for passing under low bridges when the water was high. The structure behind it is just awning, easily removed. It wasn't a problem for our cruise, but they are aware of the issue.

Here's another view of the port side, stern to the left, with the ship that's replacing it tied up ahead of it.