Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
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- Jul 11, 2008
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The Great Storm Surge of Hamburg...
On the evening of February 16, 1962, most people in Hamburg were sitting in front of the television. It was Friday, "The Hesselbach Family" was on TV - a popular series that regularly achieved ratings of up to 80 percent. Outside it was rather uncomfortable, a storm swept through the streets. But that was not unusual at this time of year.
What the people of Hamburg didn't know: They were the first harbingers of the storm "Vincinette", which came from the southern Arctic Ocean towards northern Germany and drove huge masses of water towards the Elbe.
On the high seas, the storm grew into a hurricane and developed such force that it could no longer be measured - the instruments had failed at 14 wind forces!
On the night of February 17, 1962, Hamburg was to experience its most devastating flood disaster to date. Hundreds died, tens of thousands lost their homes, and an entire neighborhood was wiped out. The worst could possibly have been prevented.
It wasn't until 8:33 p.m. that the first storm surge warning "for the entire German North Sea coast" came on the radio, but Hamburg was not mentioned. The citizens did not feel addressed, the coast is 100 kilometers from the city.
Television continued to be watched in the Hanseatic city. Others went dancing, to the cinema or just slept, although at almost six meters the highest tide since the level measurements began rolled up the Elbe, since the hurricane blowing from the north-west pushed the waters up the river.....
Nobody recognized the danger.
At 9:28 p.m. the storm cut off the telephone and telex connection to the Cuxhaven outpost, which is so important for Hamburg, and the electric water level meter failed to work.
Hamburg could no longer be warned!
It would be less than four hours before the tide hit Hamburg.
In the meantime, the waves on the North Sea were up to eight meters high and the island of Wangerooge threatened to break in two. The first dykes on the coast broke near Papenburg...
...200 kilometers west of Hamburg, around 10 p.m.
Even when a storm surge warning was reported on the television news at 10:15 p.m. - now with an expected height of 3.50 meters - the people of Hamburg were not worried because the warnings still did not include the Hanseatic city.
In the meantime, the power grid had failed in half of northern Germany. Therefore flood cannons should warn the population with cannon shots. But in Stade, where they had been in service since the 18th century, the harbor master could only fire twice before the tide simply swept the guns away.
At 10:53 p.m. and 11:13 p.m., radio stations broadcast an evacuation order for the coastal town of Cuxhaven...:
At the same time, the responsible Hamburg authorities were still discussing whether the dykes would hold up - and had disputes over who was responsible.
There was no overarching central coordination, instead there was organized irresponsibility!
Meanwhile, calls for help from the population due to the storm damage were received at the Hamburg police headquarters without a break. Fire brigades and patrol cars were deployed. But there was no evacuation.
At midnight the first dykes were flooded in Hamburg's Wilhelmsburg district...:
Those who had been bombed out during the war and refugees from the Soviet-occupied zone settled here. They were housed in allotment colonies and dwellings that consisted only of temporary building materials and did not offer the slightest protection.
The district, Europe's largest river island, is an extremely low-lying area, framed by dikes, but these were too old and too low to ward off the masses of water. In addition, many residents used the protective wall to keep chickens and thus only made it more dilapidated. The Elbe island resembled a basin in which the local residents were helpless at the mercy of the flood.
When the dikes broke, the current swept everything away. The ice-cold brown broth surprised most Hamburgers in their sleep.
Those who could fled to the upper floors and hoped to be rescued, but in the simple makeshift homes, people had only the choice between fleeing to the roof or fleeing to the streets.
Both were life-threatening. Survivors tell how they had to cling to the chimney on the roof to avoid being swept away by the waves. Others were no longer able to open their front door because the water masses pressed against it from outside. Some just got the door open, but were then washed down the basement stairs by the flooding water and drowned there.
Their cries for help were drowned out by the roar of the tidal wave and the raging storm. Many had to watch helplessly that night as their families, neighbors and friends were swept away by the floods and never came back. Anyone who was soaked and was able to escape to a reasonably safe place was now threatened with the freezing cold. After the flood, Wilhelmsburg suffered the most victims - 222 dead.
There were a total of over 60 dike breaches. About a fifth of Hamburg's urban area was flooded. The flood reached a water level of 5.70 meters above sea level.
At least now it became clear: The situation had been hopelessly underestimated by the authorities!
Hamburg's Senator for the Interior, Helmut Schmidt, came home from a conference in Berlin at night and immediately rushed to City Hall.
The man, who had only been in office for two months, brought order back to the chaos by calling on the German Armed Forces and NATO associations to take part in a large-scale operation in the event of a disaster and placed them all under his command...:
In order not to waste any more time, he did not wait for the approval of the Ministry of Defense, which is required under the Basic Law, but acted. A clear breach of the constitution - but the courageous decision of the later German Chancellor saved hundreds, if not thousands, of people from certain death!
From that day until his death on November 10, 2015, Helmut Schmidt was the most popular hamburger!
The residents of the Hanseatic city have never forgotten that he acted on their behalf that night without caring about his own career, rather than ducking away, hiding behind cheap speech bubbles - and in view of the misfortune of the victims during staged visits to the disaster area cracking lame jokes with the cameras running, like another top German politician who also wanted to become chancellor did last year...
25,000 helpers and about a hundred helicopters - including US helicopters, which Schmidt had also requested and placed under his command - were in action around the clock for days.
Nevertheless, the balance was devastating: 315 dead in Hamburg alone, over 15,000 homeless and 60,000 Hamburgers cut off from the outside world for several days.
The homeless were initially quartered in public buildings and given medical care. Helicopters rescued the injured and provided food and medicine to those cut off from the outside world.
The recovered dead could not be laid out in the city morgues due to lack of space. The dead bodies were lined up on the artificial ice rink in the "Planten un Blomen" park until they were identified.
When the tide swept over Hamburg, the 1825 dyke regulations still applied. The city had planned to raise the dykes to 6.50 meters above sea level from 1963.
A year too late.
On the evening of February 16, 1962, most people in Hamburg were sitting in front of the television. It was Friday, "The Hesselbach Family" was on TV - a popular series that regularly achieved ratings of up to 80 percent. Outside it was rather uncomfortable, a storm swept through the streets. But that was not unusual at this time of year.
What the people of Hamburg didn't know: They were the first harbingers of the storm "Vincinette", which came from the southern Arctic Ocean towards northern Germany and drove huge masses of water towards the Elbe.
On the high seas, the storm grew into a hurricane and developed such force that it could no longer be measured - the instruments had failed at 14 wind forces!
On the night of February 17, 1962, Hamburg was to experience its most devastating flood disaster to date. Hundreds died, tens of thousands lost their homes, and an entire neighborhood was wiped out. The worst could possibly have been prevented.
It wasn't until 8:33 p.m. that the first storm surge warning "for the entire German North Sea coast" came on the radio, but Hamburg was not mentioned. The citizens did not feel addressed, the coast is 100 kilometers from the city.
Television continued to be watched in the Hanseatic city. Others went dancing, to the cinema or just slept, although at almost six meters the highest tide since the level measurements began rolled up the Elbe, since the hurricane blowing from the north-west pushed the waters up the river.....
Nobody recognized the danger.
At 9:28 p.m. the storm cut off the telephone and telex connection to the Cuxhaven outpost, which is so important for Hamburg, and the electric water level meter failed to work.
Hamburg could no longer be warned!
It would be less than four hours before the tide hit Hamburg.
In the meantime, the waves on the North Sea were up to eight meters high and the island of Wangerooge threatened to break in two. The first dykes on the coast broke near Papenburg...
...200 kilometers west of Hamburg, around 10 p.m.
Even when a storm surge warning was reported on the television news at 10:15 p.m. - now with an expected height of 3.50 meters - the people of Hamburg were not worried because the warnings still did not include the Hanseatic city.
In the meantime, the power grid had failed in half of northern Germany. Therefore flood cannons should warn the population with cannon shots. But in Stade, where they had been in service since the 18th century, the harbor master could only fire twice before the tide simply swept the guns away.
At 10:53 p.m. and 11:13 p.m., radio stations broadcast an evacuation order for the coastal town of Cuxhaven...:
At the same time, the responsible Hamburg authorities were still discussing whether the dykes would hold up - and had disputes over who was responsible.
There was no overarching central coordination, instead there was organized irresponsibility!
Meanwhile, calls for help from the population due to the storm damage were received at the Hamburg police headquarters without a break. Fire brigades and patrol cars were deployed. But there was no evacuation.
At midnight the first dykes were flooded in Hamburg's Wilhelmsburg district...:
Those who had been bombed out during the war and refugees from the Soviet-occupied zone settled here. They were housed in allotment colonies and dwellings that consisted only of temporary building materials and did not offer the slightest protection.
The district, Europe's largest river island, is an extremely low-lying area, framed by dikes, but these were too old and too low to ward off the masses of water. In addition, many residents used the protective wall to keep chickens and thus only made it more dilapidated. The Elbe island resembled a basin in which the local residents were helpless at the mercy of the flood.
When the dikes broke, the current swept everything away. The ice-cold brown broth surprised most Hamburgers in their sleep.
Those who could fled to the upper floors and hoped to be rescued, but in the simple makeshift homes, people had only the choice between fleeing to the roof or fleeing to the streets.
Both were life-threatening. Survivors tell how they had to cling to the chimney on the roof to avoid being swept away by the waves. Others were no longer able to open their front door because the water masses pressed against it from outside. Some just got the door open, but were then washed down the basement stairs by the flooding water and drowned there.
Their cries for help were drowned out by the roar of the tidal wave and the raging storm. Many had to watch helplessly that night as their families, neighbors and friends were swept away by the floods and never came back. Anyone who was soaked and was able to escape to a reasonably safe place was now threatened with the freezing cold. After the flood, Wilhelmsburg suffered the most victims - 222 dead.
There were a total of over 60 dike breaches. About a fifth of Hamburg's urban area was flooded. The flood reached a water level of 5.70 meters above sea level.
At least now it became clear: The situation had been hopelessly underestimated by the authorities!
Hamburg's Senator for the Interior, Helmut Schmidt, came home from a conference in Berlin at night and immediately rushed to City Hall.
The man, who had only been in office for two months, brought order back to the chaos by calling on the German Armed Forces and NATO associations to take part in a large-scale operation in the event of a disaster and placed them all under his command...:
In order not to waste any more time, he did not wait for the approval of the Ministry of Defense, which is required under the Basic Law, but acted. A clear breach of the constitution - but the courageous decision of the later German Chancellor saved hundreds, if not thousands, of people from certain death!
From that day until his death on November 10, 2015, Helmut Schmidt was the most popular hamburger!
The residents of the Hanseatic city have never forgotten that he acted on their behalf that night without caring about his own career, rather than ducking away, hiding behind cheap speech bubbles - and in view of the misfortune of the victims during staged visits to the disaster area cracking lame jokes with the cameras running, like another top German politician who also wanted to become chancellor did last year...
25,000 helpers and about a hundred helicopters - including US helicopters, which Schmidt had also requested and placed under his command - were in action around the clock for days.
Nevertheless, the balance was devastating: 315 dead in Hamburg alone, over 15,000 homeless and 60,000 Hamburgers cut off from the outside world for several days.
The homeless were initially quartered in public buildings and given medical care. Helicopters rescued the injured and provided food and medicine to those cut off from the outside world.
The recovered dead could not be laid out in the city morgues due to lack of space. The dead bodies were lined up on the artificial ice rink in the "Planten un Blomen" park until they were identified.
When the tide swept over Hamburg, the 1825 dyke regulations still applied. The city had planned to raise the dykes to 6.50 meters above sea level from 1963.
A year too late.
