GERMANY: The German government has announced a €6.9 billion fund to help the victims of the country's catastrophic flooding - a fund to be financed by delaying promised tax cuts. From Derek Scally, in Berlin
The Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schröder, made the announcement in Berlin yesterday as flood waters continued to surge northwards claiming two further lives and bringing the flood death toll to 15.
"This catastrophe has changed life for everyone in Germany ... and it is clear that the cost is not in the realm of millions but billions," said Mr Schröder at a press conference yesterday evening.
The flood waters that swamped Prague and Dresden continued to demolish all dams in their path, sending the churning flood waters of the Elbe towards the town of Wittenberg yesterday. "In some places it is now a race against time," said a town spokesman.
Soldiers in helicopters threw sandbags onto a dam near the town in an attempt to stem the flow of the flood waters gushing through seven individual breaches. The surging Elbe knocked a 200-metre breach in another dam.
Authorities in Magdeburg, state capital of Saxony-Anhalt, meanwhile prepared to evacuate thousands of people last night after the Elbe reached the record level of seven metres.
The "Flood Catastrophe" fund will be financed by pushing back tax cuts planned for next year until 2004. Berlin will distribute over half of the €6.9 billion fund to state and local governments in affected areas, keeping the rest for its own projects.
Chancellor Schröder said the cabinet opted to postpone tax cuts after considering other options, including a "solidarity" tax similar to the one introduced to pay for the reconstruction of eastern Germany. He said the government "very consciously didn't go this way" to minimise the burden on those already under pressure.
Mr Hans Eichel, the Finance Minister, announced a budget freeze on all spending not to do with flood relief or the fight against terrorism.
In the eastern state of Saxony, sinking water levels revealed for the first time yesterday the destruction caused by the region's worst flooding in 500 years.
Rescue workers clearing away mud and debris in Dresden discovered the body of a 52-year-old man. In the town of Glashütte, soldiers found the body of a 50-year-old man. Police say that 26 people are still missing in Saxony alone, 18 of whom haven't been seen in more than three days.
The Saxon government estimates that 740 km of roads and at least 180 bridges have been destroyed by the flood waters. Besides the cost of structural damage, the floods have cost the state at least €200 million in lost revenue, over half of which is in lost grain and crops.
One-fifth of the state's railway network, 538 kilometres of track, has been washed away, said Deutsche Bahn, the national train company.
Russia joined the German rescue effort yesterday, sending an army plane to Dresden loaded with specially-equipped vehicles as well as hundreds of water pumps and generators.