A few weeks after the flood of the century in the Baltic Sea, the last wrecks have been salvaged. After weeks of clean-up work, harbour operators are slowly gaining an overview and the results are sobering: experts now estimate that around 2,000 yachts have been damaged, ten to fifteen percent of which are total losses. In total, the salvage experts from the Marine Claims Service (MCS) have received more than 290 orders along the German coast. Of these, around 150 yachts have sunk completely. Even in supposedly sheltered harbours such as Schleswig in the furthest corner of the Schlei, supposedly inland, the storm struck. A review of the Baltic Sea storm surge
It is Friday, 20 October 2023, and people all along the German and Danish Baltic Sea coast are preparing for the arrival of storm Wolfgang and the accompanying flooding. So is Björn Hansen, Operations Manager of the Viking harbour in Schleswig. The forecasts are gloomy: "The forecast was for 1.75 metres more and a lot of wind. We then took off all the ships and adjusted all the lines again. It was clear that something was coming our way," he says. The constellation of strong winds from the east, which had been blowing for days and would develop into a hurricane-force storm during the night, and the water level, which was already significantly higher than normal, did not bode well. At this point, however, no one could have guessed how devastating the effects would be ...
Langballigau
Two days later, there was a trail of devastation along the entire coast. Few harbours got off as lightly as the one in Langballigau on the southern shore of the Flensburg Fjord. Norbert and Marion Krink were moored here at the time with their motor trawler "Marco Polo". An unplanned stopover on the way to the winter camp at Egernsund in Denmark. They had set off from Eckernförde a few days earlier in beautiful weather. On the way, they receive the news that they will not be able to call at Egernsund due to the forecast wind forces. Luckily, they managed to find a place on a floating dock in Langballigau. "Our biggest problem at first was that the harbour master had already turned off the power and water on Wednesday and we weren't prepared for that," says Marion Krink. "At least we had diesel heating and a gas cooker, but we were running out of food." In a chat group that the couple use to keep friends and family up to date, she writes on this Friday: "The fire brigade is now in action here and the sea rescuers are also on site. We look in bewilderment at the flooded, wavy harbour, where all order and good seamanship seem to have been suspended. No electricity, no fresh water, heating problems. We can't get off the boat and are surrounded by water. We have probably almost reached the peak. The main thing is that the dolphins, lines, cleats and ultimately the floating docks hold," reads one of the messages.
Fortunately, the sea rescuers were also on site and helped to make the boats really storm-proof at the jetties. Nevertheless, the Krinks still have to keep checking their mooring lines, fenders and other lines and adjust their positions and lengths. "For that reason alone, we can't get off the boat," she says.
However, the fact that the Krinks are allowed to stay on board in Langballigau is a major exception. In most harbours, the emergency services at some point tell the ship owners to leave their boat for their own safety. Meanwhile, hundreds of sea rescuers and firefighters are working tirelessly all along the coast, trying to save what can be saved.
Travemünde
This was also the case in Travemünde, where Patrick Morgenroth, foreman of the local volunteer centre and also an instructor with the sea rescuers, and his team monitored the constantly changing situation and coordinated possible operations. "You could see the water level rising by the minute and the wind getting stronger and stronger," he says. In fact, his crew was even out on the Bay of Lübeck again on Friday afternoon because of a surfer: "He obviously didn't realise the danger he was in."
The surfer is by no means the only one to underestimate the risk of the storm in the critical hours ahead. In the Wiking marina in Schleswig, harbour operator Björn Hansen had to rescue someone in a canoe from his boat in the dark who wanted to hold out until the very end: "The wind had died down a bit around two in the morning, so we were able to rescue him more or less without any great risk after the call for help reached us." Hansen was awake all night anyway, trying to fight the inflowing masses of water from the Schlei in his harbour office with buckets and pumps. "We tried to secure all the boats until midday on Friday. But from the afternoon onwards, nothing worked. The water was already so high that we could no longer safely go onto the jetties," he reports. The first boats broke free on Friday afternoon. Hansen can only watch helplessly - a fate, a feeling of powerlessness that he shares with several harbour masters and boat owners that evening. As darkness falls, the last rescue attempts have to be cancelled in many places. The danger to life and limb is too great. In Schleswig, the water level rises to 2.35 metres above the mean water level. The floodwaters find their way into a hall at the harbour and cause a cable fire. Björn Hansen sees his life's work literally float away. It becomes a long night.
Back in Langballigau
Meanwhile on board with Mr and Mrs Krink in Langballigau: "The furling jib on the sailor next door had come loose, flapped around and then tore at some point. It was a noise like a helicopter. I kept going out half the night to deploy and check fenders and additional lines. The waves were a good 1.50 metres and came rolling in unchecked. The pier had long since been flooded. "It went up and down like on the open sea". At some point, the wind turns south as forecast. It finally calmed down a bit. Anyone who gets a wink of sleep in the harbours that night does so out of exhaustion.
A rude awakening after the Baltic Sea storm surge
On the morning of 21 October, however, thousands of coastal residents, boat owners and harbour operators are in for a rude awakening. Mr and Mrs Krink in Langballigau are finally evacuated because there is a risk of explosion. Presumably gas cylinders floating around. Marion Krink is relieved to finally be able to leave the boat and use the sanitary facilities. In vain: toilets, harbour office, restaurant - all flooded.
When they are finally brought to safety by the rescue services, the full extent of the devastation becomes clear: "The campsites were hit the hardest," says Norbert Krink. "The slightly higher road, which normally serves as a small dyke, was completely flooded. The sea ran over there unhindered and drove the caravans in front of it. They were wedged all over the place." The emergency services and local residents are very willing to help, there is coffee and sandwiches and one helper quickly starts the engine of his car so that the elderly couple can warm up in it. Nevertheless, they were lucky in their misfortune: while the damage on land was immense, the boats in Langballigau were largely spared.
Lines torn loose in Travemünde
And Travemünde also got off lightly: When Patrick Morgenroth inspects the harbour the following day, it almost seems as if nothing had happened. The sea rescuers are able to tie up a few yachts that have broken free and help frightened holidaymakers ashore from a houseboat. But apart from that, they can breathe easy. This time. "I don't think we can avoid preparing ourselves in terms of coastal protection and harbour infrastructure. The trend will be towards floating docks, dolphins and piers will have to be higher and more stable," he says. And he knows that not everywhere has got off as lightly as in Travemünde.
Effects of the Baltic Sea storm surge in Damp
In Damp, for example. Here, the hurricane hits the flat coast of Schleswig-Holstein unchecked. Directly in front of it stretches the wide Bay of Kiel, more than 50 nautical miles of open sea space. Plenty of effective area to maximise the destructive power of wind and waves together with the high tide.
The 11-metre cabin cruiser belonging to the Bredow family from Hamburg is moored in the harbour. Like many owners, they are still on site on Friday, trying to secure everything. "I checked the lines again and again," says Heike von Bredow. "I thought about what the right length would be. Not too short, so that the boat doesn't get pulled under when the water level rises. After all, it wasn't a floating dock and was already flooded. But not too much slack either, so that the boat wouldn't be tossed back and forth in the box. I was worried that the lines at the back would slip over the dolphins at some point, which is what happened later."
She waited in the harbour with her husband and son well into the evening hours, watching increasingly helplessly as the storm took over: "You could only watch as the boats broke away and slammed into each other. It was terrible." At some point, the rescue workers in the harbour asked them to go home. There is nothing more they can do anyway, the situation is no longer in their control. And they can't believe their eyes when they return the next morning with a sick feeling in their stomachs. Apart from a few scratches in the gelcoat, their boat is undamaged.
But the harbour all around is a field of rubble: hulls lie on the promenade, many at depth. Masts are sticking out of the water, fenders are floating around. Desperate owners are searching for their boats. A total of 35 of the 100 or so ships still in the water have sunk during the night or are stranded at the edge of the harbour basin. "The cleats on the new jetties were torn off. Huge stones had simply been washed down from the jetty, it was only half as high. It's hard to imagine what forces were at work there. Our lines were so compressed that we had a lot of trouble untangling them," reports Heike von Bredow.
Horror scenario in Schleswig after the Baltic Sea storm surge
When Björn Hansen inspects his harbour in Schleswig after an all-nighter, tired and exhausted, he sees a similar picture: "It was simply a horror scenario. All the ships were pushed together in a huge crowd. Many were lying ashore, 22 had sunk and a good 120 were damaged, some of them badly. Surprisingly, 80 per cent of the port facilities were still there when the water receded, but most of it was scrap. The damage to the harbour's infrastructure amounts to around 700,000 euros," reports the 34-year-old.
"But I will always remember people's willingness to help the next day in a positive light," he says. A good 50 helpers turned up on Saturday, not just boat owners, but also neighbours, friends and relatives, who all lent a hand. "We spent the whole weekend towing boats and mooring them again. Without this help, we would have been pretty much at a loss," says Björn Hansen.
Like all harbour operators along the coast, he is now faced with the question of how to deal with such forces of nature in the future. Climate researchers and meteorologists agree that they are likely to become more frequent in the future. "We will have to come up with a concept. Especially because people are leaving their boats in the water longer and longer due to the mild winters and then storms like this can come in autumn."
But before Björn Hansen can think about how to protect the harbour even better in the future, the damage must first be repaired. It will take months to fully restore the harbour - and not just in Schleswig. The power system, water, jetties - many things have to be completely redone. And it's not just the financing that is an issue. Given the order situation this winter, there is likely to be an even greater shortage of skilled labour and materials than there already is. For now, however, the operations manager is optimistic despite the consequences of the storm of the century: "I am confident that we will be able to reopen almost normally at the start of the season."
More about the Baltic Sea storm surge:
- The consequences of the Baltic Sea storm surge - retreat by 2050?
- Golden times for bargain hunters?
- Over 200 total losses - "Schilksee resembles a battlefield"
- Will the insurance companies pay for the damage?
- All yachts must be salvaged by 31 October
- Damage to the infrastructure - is the 2024 season at risk?
- Dramatic depiction of the night of horror
- Balance of damage in the harbours
- The recovery of the boats by professionals
- Bleak future for Danish harbours
