Flood Protection Made in Germany by RS Stepanek KG.

HESSEN, GERMANY, December 21, 2012 (Press-News.org) It has been ten years since great damage was caused by the Elbe flood. Measures to prevent a further high tide of this scale have been called for but as soon as the news coverage about the Elbe flood abated, the problem retreated into the background once more. The results that present themselves ten years after the high tide are alarming: Little has happened for the protection of the Elbe river banks. Relocations of the dykes and several settlements into the hinterland could be seen. At the same time, much has been done for the development of the shipping on the Elbe. According to experts, the degree of damage caused by a high tide catastrophe, should it happen again now, would be only slightly lower than ten years ago. The responsible parties must act to prevent such a disaster from repeating itself. It can be observed that projects are procrastinated or prevented by lobbyists. A process of rethinking is imperative as natural disasters are unpredictable and able to hit the Elbe regions again with the same force.

In regions that theoretically could be struck by high tide, flood protection is an important issue. The severe damage causes by high tide in the last years demonstrate that it is not sufficient to pile up sandbags in this case. The Elbe flood in 2002, that drowned wide parts of Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, is as unforgotten as the Oder high tide in 1997 due to which many people in Poland, the Czech Republic and Germany lost their houses and which claimed 114 deaths. Sadly, these events sink into oblivion when the news coverage abates and the rebuilding in the affected regions begins. Nature is powerful and therefore, everyone living in an affected area ought to prevent high tide damage.

At first, extreme rainfall and Summer thundershower in the mountains enter the rivers that originate in the higher regions and thereby are transported into the valley. In a rainy summer, a small river quickly becomes a rapid flow. The river bed cannot adsorb the water masses, the water bursts the banks. As the tight population in many river regions leaves no room for the expansion of the water, floods come to pass that, in most cases, causes severe damage. In the affected regions, flood protection is essential. It should be conducted by an enterprise that is well versed in the matter and possesses sufficient experience. There are many possibilities to build flood protection. The expert distinguishes flood protection measures between manual and automatic measures. The manual flood protection measures include, for example, the installation of flood protection windows in houses that are built near the river banks. Those prevent the water from entering the inside of the building and causing damage there. Flood protection walls are an effective means to prevent ingression of water in buildings in case of a flood. Furthermore, it is possible to erect flood barriers which provide efficient protection if the dykes can not hold the water. Additionally, doors or barriers that can be closed automatically or manually to prevent the entering of the water have proved themselves successful as flood protection.

The installation of automatic flood protection measures, which activate themselves independently as soon as the water bursts the banks, are expedient in strongly endangered regions and should be installed by a specialist firm. The enterprise RS Stepanek is a specialist firm with more than twenty years of experience in flood protection. The firm belongs to the original members of the flood protection union (Hochwasserschutzverband) and offers various systems for manual and automatic flood protection. The ideal system is chosen on the basis of an intensive counseling.

Contact:

RS Stepanek KG
Limburger Strasse 78

D-65555 Limburg / Offheim Germany
Telephone: +49 ( 0) 6431 95 82 0
Fax: +49 ( 0) 6431 95 82 55

vertrieb@rs-stepanek.de
www.rs-stepanek.de