The Danube Overflows

The snow in the Alps was unprecedented; there was more of it on the ground in July than at Christmastime. Then, in a meteorological freak, a cold air mass from the north collided over the Alps with a moisture-laden warm air mass from the south, and the resultant rain and snow were more than any river system could handle. The worst Danube flood since the 16th century was on.

In Bavaria and western Austria, rain fell steadily for two weeks. The Inn, Traun, Enns and Ilz Rivers, swollen and heavy with flotsam, emptied into the surging Danube. At points of confluence, Passau and Linz, there was catastrophe. At Linz, in three days, the Danube doubled in width and tripled in depth, forcing 15,000 people to leave their homes. At Passau the river stage was 40 feet, 22 inches higher than the previous record of 1862.

Almost every city along the Austrian length of the Danube was partly under water, damage to adjoining cropland was estimated at $20 million, and 200 bridges were out. On the German-Austrian border a dam was blown up to prevent further flooding, and at one spot on the Danube, the bodies of 200 deer, 300 rabbits and 800 pheasants were washed ashore.

At least 17 people lost their lives. It might have been much worse but for the prompt help of the U.S. Army's 4,000-man disaster team, which rescued 300 by helicopter, evacuated thousands of others in amphibian trucks and 150 assault boats. In Germany, G.I.s worked alongside 5,000 Bavarian policemen and 3,000 frontier guards for a week, fighting the floods. In Bonn, Konrad Adenauer and his Cabinet voted to thank the helpful Americans. Wired Adenauer: "The German population is filled with deep gratitude." At the U.S. Air Force base at Tulln, near Vienna, 40 airmen rode boldly into the Soviet zone to help the local population bolster dikes. Later, Red army soldiers joined in. For two days they labored side by side, hardly speaking to each other, but doing a common job.

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