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American Morning

Elbe to Crest Later Today

Aired August 16, 2002 - 07:05   ET

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

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Now back to the floods. In Dresden, Germany, there are more than 30,000 people who are fleeing their homes there. The Elbe River has reached levels unmatched since the middle of the 19th century.
Our Jim Boulden is in Dresden with the latest.

Jim -- hello.

JIM BOULDEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, good morning, Daryn.

I want to show you right away what is happening here. The water has gone up to some 29 feet. It's rising about an inch to 3 inches every hour.

That log out there you can see was on dry land about four or five years ago. This whole area around here, we were able to walk. The river down there you can see is about 40 feet away, but what's happened, of course, it's coming over this bank now. It broke many banks last night in this area, and a lot of people, thousands of people being evacuated.

Unfortunately, this part of Dresden has very historic buildings. Behind me is an archaeology museum, and they are pumping water out of that basement very quickly. The problem is not water getting into the windows; it's water seeping through the basement. And so, they have been moving a lot of their statutes, a lot of their archaeology up.

Some of the other museums are also moving a lot of their artwork up, and they're desperately trying to save what is a very historic city -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Jim Boulden in Dresden, thank you so much.

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