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CNN Live Today

Floodwaters in Dresden, Germany Continue to Rise

Aired August 15, 2002 - 10:06   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Right now, though, we move on to Europe and the disastrous flooding that has washed over a half dozen nations there. One of the most ravaged sites is Dresden, Germany. That is a city that narrowly survived the fire bombings of World War II. It is now inundated by the latest floods.
Our Gaven Morris is in that city, considered by many to be Germany's cultural jewel and joins with us the latest. Gaven, hello.

GAVEN MORRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the concerning thing here in Dresden today is that all along, the officials here have been predicting when the river will peak. They now seem to have given up, saying when -- they expect if the river keeps rising towards what they were fearing would be a target level of about eight and a half meters.

We are now at about eight meters 30, and they have now pretty much given up saying when they think it will reach 8.50 or whether it will go beyond. One of the problems is, many of the water measurement devices along the river down stream of here have been completely washed away in the terrible floods that have swept through there already, so now it is a guessing game, a waiting game.

The residents here are waiting, watching the water levels. They are all on the bridges, it is an amazing scene here in the town. All the town is on the bridges, lining the river, watching the water rise. As they do that, some are evacuating outlying suburbs here in Dresden, and the hospitals, too, are being evacuated. All major hospitals in this city have been airlifting intensive care patients out of the buildings, and others taken by bus, taxi, however they can get them out of the hospitals.

KAGAN: And Gaven, when we call it the cultural jewel of Germany, what are some of the sights that are in danger because of the flooding?

MORRIS: Well, we were in a museum earlier on today, the Albertinum, which is a -- it houses one of the state art collections here. What has happened there is that many of the galleries are down below ground floor level, and they have taken a lot of old works, old master works up above those levels. But unfortunately, still, in many of these basement galleries, there are big sculptures that cannot be removed. They are just too big, too cumbersome, they can't be moved out of the basement, and if this flood level goes above 8.50 towards nine meters, the real fear is that those galleries will be inundated, and potentially millions and millions of dollars worth of art works could be destroyed -- Daryn.

KAGAN: All right. Gaven Morris in Dresden, Germany. Thank you so much. Stay dry and stay safe there.

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