{"id":52622,"date":"2023-11-07T09:31:12","date_gmt":"2023-11-07T08:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sea-help.eu\/news-general\/storm-flood-storm-east-sea-2023\/"},"modified":"2023-11-07T09:31:12","modified_gmt":"2023-11-07T08:31:12","slug":"storm-flood-storm-east-sea-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sea-help.eu\/en\/news-general\/storm-flood-storm-east-sea-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"SeaHelp in continuous operation: <\/span><\/span>Baltic Sea storm floods 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"

The SeaHelp team led by head of operations Ren\u00e9 Haar had their hands full over the last few days. The reason was the Baltic Sea storm flood on the night of October 20\/21, 2023, which the authorities currently classify as the most severe Baltic Sea storm flood since 1872<\/a>. “A flood of the century”, summarizes SeaHelp operations manager Ren\u00e9 Haar.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ren\u00e9 Haar had never seen anything like it: “Bridges were destroyed, floating bridges were partially lifted out, lines were torn or slipped off dolphins and bollards, causing the ships to drift and cause further damage,”<\/em> says the experienced SeaHelp rescuer, who is responsible for the Flensburg and Danish South Sea area with his team. Ships were impaled on bridges or dolphins or smashed into each other.<\/p>\n

The culprit was the Baltic Sea storm flood on the night of October 20\/21, 2023, which the authorities currently classify as the worst Baltic Sea storm flood since the storm flood of 1872<\/a>. “A flood of the century,” summarizes head of operations Ren\u00e9 Haar. The highest peak water level measured was 2.27 meters above mean sea level in Flensburg. The damage to the coasts, beaches, flood protection, harbors and boats in Germany was officially estimated at around 200 million euros.<\/p>\n

Storm Babet hit an area of high pressure over Scandinavia – this led to strong easterly winds<\/h2>\n

How did it come about? <\/strong> A low-pressure system had moved from the west coast of Spain across the Bay of Biscay and the UK, where it had already been dubbed Storm Babet. Babet encountered an area of high pressure over Scandinavia, which led to exceptionally strong easterly winds – a textbook example of how a storm surge develops. The BSH (Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency) had issued a warning the day before about the approaching high tide on the German Baltic coast.<\/p>\n

A lot of work for Ren\u00e9 Haar’s SeaHelp team: “In the run-up to the Baltic Sea storm flood, we secured countless ships and also some port facilities,”<\/em> says the rescue professional. Often in vain: owners who had not properly secured their yachts had increasingly broken free, drifted and damaged or sunk other ships, says Haar.<\/p>\n

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\"Ostsee-Sturmflut<\/a><\/p>\n

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Some of the yachts torn loose by the storm were secured by SeaHelp<\/h2>\n

He and his team were able to secure some of the yachts that were torn loose. Immediately after the storm, they were placed under cranes and saved from sinking. “In the case of the yachts that had already sunk, the damage was so severe that salvage without a crane was usually no longer possible,”<\/em> says Ren\u00e9 Haar, so “heavy equipment”<\/em> had to be used.<\/p>\n

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