With Black Hawks and sandbags against the floods

For the time being, Hadersdorf has escaped the catastrophe. But the Black Hawk in the sky shows that the situation remains extremely dangerous: the transport helicopter flies from a nearby field to the dam on the Gschinzbach and places sandbags there. Firefighters hang the “big packs” weighing a thousand kilos on a rope, one after the other; the journey there and back takes around three minutes.

The day before, the volume of water in the otherwise idyllic river had become so great that the dam threatened to burst. To prevent this, the Federal Army moved its most modern helicopter into the deep Lower Austrian province. Emergency aid would no longer have been possible by truck because the ground around the dam had become too soft. And it is still pouring with rain.

The endangered reservoir

The Hadersdorf Volunteer Fire Department building is where the operations are all coordinated. Soldiers from the Federal Army, firefighters and helpers sit at long tables eating cabbage dumplings and rice with curry. It is stuffy and smells of petroleum, which is used in the room next door to heat the food. The buffet set up along the walls also offers tea, coffee and desserts.

The mayor of the community with around 2,000 residents, Heinrich Becker, has been here most of the time since Wednesday. On the night of Monday, he slept for an hour and a half, more than the nights before. As long as the tension persists, the tiredness is not a problem, says the 57-year-old. But he feels it when things calm down a bit or he comes in from outside into the warmth. But then there is another report that a dam is about to break. “And bang, you're back.”

Hadersdorf is one of the first communities to be declared a disaster area on Saturday. It is located on the Kamp, where water had to be released in a controlled manner due to the impending overflow of the Ottenstein reservoir, even though this river was already swollen.

In addition to the Kamp, several tributaries such as the Gschinzbach flow through the community. The danger of flooding is therefore well known here – especially since Hadersdorf was hit by a flood of the century in 2002. Almost 90 percent of the town was under water, recalls Becker, who was deputy commander of the fire brigade at the time. Today, two residential areas in particular are badly affected, and 180 households have had to be evacuated.

A lot has been invested in structural flood protection and prevention, says the mayor. “Of course everyone is afraid. But people are better prepared and know what to do and when.” The situation is therefore not comparable to 2002. But it is dramatic for those who are hit for the second time. “You need a sense of humor.”

On the main square, many doors are reinforced with boards or sandbags, although there is no acute danger here. The “restaurant” is closed, like most small shops. Barbara Huber has been running the restaurant since 2019. “First came Corona, and now this.” The uncertainty as to whether the danger is already over is difficult, says the landlady. That is why she is currently living in the business with her husband and two daughters. “When the water comes, we have to clear the basement.” On the television above a counter, “Puls 24” is playing, a news channel that is currently reporting on the dam reinforcement with the Black Hawk helicopter just under a kilometer away.

Mia and Susi Huber have now put on colorful rain gear and rubber boots and are going outside, where the rain has gotten heavier again. She thinks it's “great” that they don't have to go to school at the moment. But when the two girls received the message from the civil protection office on their cell phones on Saturday that Hadersdorf was a disaster area, they were shocked, says Huber. For the 44-year-olds, it is clear that the situation is due to climate change. Everyone needs to start taking that into account.

A flooded small town

In Stockerau, almost 40 kilometers to the east, the dam did not hold. At the weekend, the heavily swollen Senningbach broke through and flooded the town center. Hundreds of helpers worked through the night, and one person died in a nearby village. On Monday, little remains of the disaster: the streets have been cleared of mud, only the allotment gardens are still under water.

But the damage is immense. A cloudy liquid is bubbling out of a pump under a wooden gate. Behind it, half the yard is under water. To speed up the work, Roland Gschaider has just installed a second pump. “Unfortunately, my house and my business were flooded yesterday,” says the 55-year-old. Wet parquet is visible behind the windows, and in the yard, cars belonging to customers of a rented paint shop are parked wheel-deep in water.

Gschaider spent the whole night piling up sandbags, more than 10,000 of which were provided by the municipality. He did it in rubber boots, without socks. Now his feet are bloody. For him, the help from the authorities came too slowly. He understands that the fire brigade first built a dam on the other side of the road to protect the sewage treatment plant. “But I don't know why they couldn't put a few sandbags in front of my gate. That would have been so quick.”

The Stockerauer man's loss is great and his prospects are uncertain: the insurance company only wants to pay 4,000 euros, a fraction of the costs now incurred. They say he should have taken out his own insurance for disasters. “The insurance against water and storm damage is not enough.” He could receive compensation from the disaster fund, which the government in Vienna has endowed with 300 million euros. But Gschaider fears that this will only cover part of it.

The sandbags he had stacked up are now lying on the empty street. He doesn't believe or hope that the water will come again. But he can't be sure, like everyone else here.