[Video transcript]
Floodwaters as far as the eye can see.
At this small village of Thören in Germany's north, rising waters have been collecting for nearly two weeks, threatening to get into houses
Tanja Voth built this self-made dyke to protect her home.
(Tanja Voth, resident)
"It's really depressing. First there was the danger of floodwaters from behind. Now because of the groundwater we also have a threat from the other side. You think it can't be real, what's going on? You just try to use humor to deal with it."
Outside her house, large pumps are working constantly, day and night.
Germany has mobilized volunteers from civil protection sevices. But it’s a race against the clock — and the water.
(Michael Matrian, THW)
"At this place, we are protecting the village with our pumping capacities. We have two high-capacity pumping models here. Each of these pumps can pump 5000 liters per minute. And we try to bring the water away from the houses, so that the small channel, which is already a lake, will not rise more, so that the village and the people in the house will not get too much flooding."
The whole village is involved. Neighbors are sharing pumps. But there is a common fear: If the dyke around Thören breaks, most of the houses will be flooded.
(Michael Matrian, THW)
"The problem is (that) the water is standing here much too long. It’s for short term, but it’s here now almost for two weeks. We have specialists here who are checking the strength of the dykes and if they get weak or get small holes, we try to fix them and to support the dyke (so) that it will still stand strong."
Millions of sandbags have been distributed in the flood-hit areas, to protect settlements and dykes.
Help is even coming from France. French Civil Security workers travelled 1,200 kilometers from the south of Paris to control the situation. It's part of the EU's cooperation system for disaster response.
One of them is Ludovic Penager, who brought experience and some special material to the flooded area.
(Ludovic Penager, Civil Security unit from France)
"We will build a barrier, which you can see here. This barrier will be filled with water and will be one meter high. The idea is to build a mobile dyke which will be 650 meters long, to prevent the water behind us from flooding the village."
Thören is relying on the team of experts doing everything they can to save it. But it's heavily dependent on the weather forecast, too, which is finally predicting a couple of dry days after weeks of rain.