Tag: Hamburg

North Sea flood of 1962

The North Sea flood of 1962 (also known as the Hamburg flood or Sturmflut 1962) was a major storm surge disaster on the night of 16- 17 February 1962.

It primarily struck the North Sea coast of West Germany (especially Hamburg and areas along the Elbe and Weser rivers), with some effects in the Netherlands. It remains one of the most severe natural disasters in modern German history.

A dramatic black and white scene depicting a flooded urban street with two submerged cars, strong waves crashing, and heavy rain falling under a dark, stormy sky.
AI generated by Grok

The North Sea flood of 1962 (also known as the Hamburg flood or Sturmflut 1962) was a major storm surge disaster on the night of 16- 17 February 1962.

It primarily struck the North Sea coast of West Germany (especially Hamburg and areas along the Elbe and Weser rivers), with some effects in the Netherlands. It remains one of the most severe natural disasters in modern German history.

Aerial view of a flooded area with submerged buildings and trees, showcasing the impact of rising water levels.
Contemporary witnesses show photos of the 1962 storm surge in Hamburg | ndr.de

An intense extratropical cyclone (the Vincinette low– pressure system, also known as the Great Sheffield Gale) moved across the North Sea.

It had already caused significant damage and nine deaths in Sheffield, UK. Peak winds reached about 200 km/h (with gusts of Beaufort force 10- 12).

Prolonged northwesterly gales drove a large volume of water into the German Bight. This coincided with high tide, producing an extreme storm surge.

Water levels set records at many gauges. In Hamburg (roughly 100 km inland on the Elbe), the peak reached 5.70 m above Normalnull (NN) at the St. Pauli gauge, about 3.5- 3.6 m above mean high water and the highest then recorded.

Dykes (many not yet fully upgraded after the 1953 North Sea flood) were overtopped or breached in dozens of places (over 50- 60 major breaches reported, especially along the lower Elbe and its tributaries).

Sea dykes generally held better than river dikes. Warning systems of the era (limited forecasting technology, telephone, siren failures, power outages, and restricted radio and TV hours) delayed effective alerts to inland areas.

Impacts

  • Casualties: Approximately 347 deaths overall (315 in Hamburg, with the rest mainly along the North Sea coast of Schleswig- Holstein and Lower Saxony; a few soldiers and helpers among the dead). Most victims drowned, many while asleep in low- lying districts.⁠
  • Flooding and damage in Hamburg: About 120 km² (one- sixth of the city) flooded. Hardest- hit areas included Wilhelmsburg (especially the Reiherstieg quarter and areas behind the Klütjenfelder Hauptdeich), Neuenfelde, Finkenwerder, and other southern and eastern districts. Roughly 6,000 buildings were destroyed or heavily damaged; around 20,000 people were left homeless (homes of up to ~60,000 affected). Tens of thousands were temporarily isolated by floodwaters. Infrastructure (roads, railways, power, supplies) was severely disrupted. Damage in Hamburg alone was estimated at around DM 3 billion (or several hundred million euros in later equivalents).⁠
  • Wider coastal effects: Significant dyke damage, dune erosion, and some flooding and evacuations in Schleswig- Holstein and Lower Saxony (including islands and Halligen). Livestock losses were high in places. The Netherlands experienced milder effects.

Helmut Schmidt (then Hamburg’s police senator) led rescue coordination, mobilizing the newly formed Bundeswehr (despite constitutional limits at the time), NATO helicopters, and international aid. Radio amateurs helped maintain communications.

A flooded street scene with partially submerged trees, buildings, and a boat carrying people in the water.
Contemporary witnesses show photos of the 1962 storm surge in Hamburg | ndr.de

Aftermath

The disaster prompted major improvements in coastal and river flood defenses: dyke raising and strengthening, shortening of some waterways, better maintenance, improved warning systems, and emergency planning.

It also highlighted urban planning and administrative shortcomings in Hamburg’s low- lying areas (including temporary post- war housing).

Memorials and annual commemorations continue in Hamburg. Greece notably donated 500 tonnes of raisins as aid.⁠

This event is distinct from the far deadlier 1953 North Sea flood (which mainly devastated the Netherlands and eastern England). Reliable contemporary and later sources (German Hydrographic Institute reports, official chronologies, and historical analyses) form the basis of these details.

A vintage car partially submerged in floodwaters, surrounded by onlookers gathered on a wooden structure and along nearby buildings in a cityscape.
Sturmflut-Hamburg.jpg (870×1308)
Datei:Sturmflut-Hamburg.jpg – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Climate lunatics in Hamburg pass referendum committing Germany’s leading industrial city to deindustrialise completely in 15 years

Hamburg is German’s leading industrial city. Its companies add 20 billion Euros in gross value every year. Much of this economic output is related to Hamburg’s happy location on the Elbe and the fact that the city is home to Europe’s third-largest port.

From Eugyppius’s Substack

By eugyppius

A panoramic view of the Hamburg harbor featuring the iconic Elbphilharmonie building in the background, with bustling streets, ships, and a historic clock tower.

Hamburg is German’s leading industrial city. Its companies add 20 billion Euros in gross value every year. Much of this economic output is related to Hamburg’s happy location on the Elbe and the fact that the city is home to Europe’s third-largest port. All of this has made Hamburg extremely prosperous, which prosperity has filled it with rafts of clueless virtue-signalling morons who have no idea how anything works, why they find Hamburg attractive in the first place or how their hip urban lifestyles are maintained.

In this photo, published by BILD, you can see some of these unmitigated retards having a happy because they’ve just scored cheap virtue points by voting in their own personal energy apocalypse.

Specifically, these dumbasses are celebrating because their completely insane popular referendum passed with 53.2% of the vote on Sunday. This referendum, the so-called Zukunftsentscheid (“future decision”), binds the Free and Hanseatic City to achieving total carbon neutrality by 2040, five years earlier than the 2045 goal set by the almost equally insane Germany-wide Climate Protection Law as emended in 2021, which is in turn five years earlier than the 2050 goal established by the selfsame law as it originally passed the Bundestag in the year of the child-saint Greta Thunberg 2019.

Turnout was pretty low in Hamburg last Sunday, with less than 44% of eligible voters bothering to cast a ballot, most of them by mail. Thus just 23% of the most deranged Hamburgians could take their city hostage and commit its government to destroying all of its industry and most of its economic activity inside the next decade and a half. The biggest joke is that when Hamburg has finally achieved the sacred Net Zero, it will make absolutely zero net difference to anything. Hamburg is responsible for something like 0.022% of CO2 emissions globally. The city is not even a rounding error.

The referendum was an initiative of Fridays for Future, but it gathered the support of various social and environmental organisations, among them Greenpeace, the union Verdi and even FC St. Pauli. It will successively cap annual CO2 emissions sector-by-sector, imposing a slow and relentless strangulation in turn on transit, households, commerce and industry.

Consider just some of the consequences: All gas and oil heating systems in every last building in Hamburg will have to be changed out in the coming years. The cost to landlords will be reckoned in the billions. Hamburg’s entire natural gas network, constructed over generations and extending to nearly 8,000 kilometers, will soon have to be decommissioned entirely. The city will probably have to impose on all of its streets a strict speed limit of 30 kph (19 mph) and take drastic steps to reduce traffic. Municipal industries must transition from petroleum coke and gas entirely to hydrogen and e-fuels, although there is hardly a market for either of these alternatives or even the hope of one. If this law is not reversed, Hamburg will become a wasteland. First industry will leave, and then all the people will.

Look again at this photo:

A group of people celebrating with smiles and laughter, gathered closely together at an event, some wearing casual clothing, while a few hold cameras and other items.

It is absolutely imperative to get these sorts of people out of politics. They are crazy and they are doing everything in their power to destroy civilisation. They are insulated from a lot of the economic chaos they wreak because they’re overwhelmingly government bureaucrats, university types and hipsters who are to varying degrees reliant on the state to make their living. They’re renters rather than owners, they live near the city centre rather than in the suburbs, they’re young rather than old (h/t Apollo News for that link) and they think what they’ve done is just fantastic.

This article originally appeared on Eugyppius’s Substack newsletter.