First sunshine 2013-06-07 One more shot of the flood waters. This is again the 'New Danube' flood control channel. This shot was taken Wednesday about 5 p.m. I talked to one of the water officials yesterday who said that the flood peaked just below the bridge shortly after midnight. Waters are receding now everywhere in Austria except the far eastern border. The waters here were flowing at over 10 mph. The bridge is above a weir with large sluice gates - totally submerged here.

High Water 2013-06-05 What you are looking at is the "New Danube" doing what it is supposed to do, namely protecting Vienna from floods. For 99.9% of the time, the sluice gates at both ends are closed and the waters and shores are available for recreation (see my recent shots of wakeboarding and rowing). But when the sluice gates are open, up to 14,000 cubic meters of water per second can flow past Vienna at speeds up to 20 km/hour. The pedestrian bridge in the foreground was opened several days ago. The food and dance establishments along the shores are of course flooded - they expect it from time to time. The last big flood was 2002. My prayers go out to those elsewhere in Austria and in Germany and the Czech Republic where flooding was not controlled.