Dresden Flooded: A Direct Comparison

Dresden on a nice summer day... today a year ago the scenery looked quite different. Try moving your mouse over the picture! If you haven't disabled javascript it should switch to the flooded version. On a smartphone or pad just tap the pic and to go back the normal version afterwards tap some empty space besides it. I've got a few more like that...

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Dresden at the beginning of June 2013: Once again flats are being vacated, basements are being pumped out and people are meeting up to fill some sandbags. After several days of heavy rain in its watershed, the Elbe river reached a water level of 8.75 meters – normally it's just 2. (For you Americans: That's 28.7 inches vs. 6.5 inches.) Like most other people there I took some photos of the whole desaster. But in order to really grasp the scale you need to bear the normal state in mind... so when the water level returned to normality and all the mess was cleaned up I went outside again, taking another series of photos from closely the same angles. I used a rather cheap camera but still, the impact is there.

So as mentioned above, using mouseover you can act as natural force and waterlog Dresden, which gives you a direct comparison. Pretty sure this wasn't the last flood to happen here...



































If anyone's interested, here is a map depicting this flood's extent in comparison to the one from 2002 (9.40 m = 30.8 ft). Just a few inches can make a whopping difference in the area that gets flooded, but people were also prepared and organized a lot better this time around.