notamermaid

It is getting rather full in Koblenz with river cruise ships and Viking is even docking triple on the Rhine. As far as I know the authorities only allow three deep on the Rhine in emergencies. Like on the Danube one of the challenges right now is docking a passenger ship safely at an accessible dock and trying to keep an itinerary going. I have not seen so many ships at Koblenz for a long time: You can zoom in to read all the names: https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:7.604/centery:50.361/zoom:16 For now you can see them all on feratel: https://www.feratel.com/webcams/deutschland/koblenz.html It has been confirmed that river traffic at Worms is suspended. The crest of the wave is now in Speyer, all gauges downstream from there are still rising. notamermaid

And they have made the headlines! "Frankenpost" says that a river cruise ship is being evacuated at Deggendorf: https://www.frankenpost.de/inhalt.unwetter-passagierschiff-auf-der-donau-evakuiert.3ff50bc5-fda1-476b-9a71-40fbb910af9e.html Speaking of money: Depending on how many emergency services are involved (it says boats in the article) this will cost TUI more than a dinner's worth for all the passengers. And one wonders what insurance agencies may make of it. Just saying... Deggendorf is now in a state of emergency, so best to be out of there as soon as possible. Flood warning level 4, gauge at 697cm and rising. From Kelheim to Vilshofen all gauges are on level 4. The Isar at Plattling briefly scraped level 4 yesterday. Passau gauge is on level 3, 834cm and rising. notamermaid

Link is a bit slow to load but it works. The situation is not good along the gauges downstream from Maxau. But first, at Maxau the forecast suggests that the level will fall more slowly now. This could keep the level above navigational flood mark II for a bit longer. It is now at 795cm. Worms crossed the mark this morning and will have flooding that occurs every ten years. Mannheim is also mark II. Mainz looks likely to follow, Kaub is tentative. Koblenz has issued a flood warning for the low-lying areas of the city. This includes the likely flooding of the Moselle embankment where river cruise ships dock. With the Moselle not contributing much water the situation will likely not be as bad below Koblenz. notamermaid

Not sure, I would have to speculate, but it is a long way to Frankfurt in a slow vessel... notamermaid

Take care and honestly, it is better that you be will off the ship and out of the area. People have been urged not to travel to most of Bavaria. Munich has a much reduced train service, etc. notamermaid

There has been an accident on the Main river. A barge hit a wall at the lock at Kleinostheim yesterday and oil leaked into the river. River traffic was suspended for several hours. A slight delay only and thankfully no major pollution. The river is rising but again today has not received much rain. The clouds moved over the southern tributaries mainly. The gauges are all still on green (no official flooding). notamermaid

I remember reading that Straubing built a new embarkation facility for river cruise a few years ago. Then drought showed that Vilshofen is a better place for that as it is beyond the shallow section. Straubing is one of those unfortunate "in-between" places, I have gathered, that do not fit well into itineraries between Regensburg and Passau. I think sailing logistics do not work out well enough. Happen to be proven wrong but as you say river cruise ships do not dock there. I will have a look if I can find the original article. notamermaid

Welcome to Cruisecritic. That is an interesting sail date for the time line of the flooding. I explain. If your ship is at Basel ready and waiting for you on Saturday you may be able to sail without problem. You are starting after the wave has gone and the flooding subsided enough and as you are having port stops in between are never able to "catch up with" the flooding. But that is the theory, your ship could be a different one or in another port, perhaps struggling to make it through the Rhine Gorge. Your cruise company will of course inform you of what will be happening and knows what restrictions may still be in place. And what the logistics are best to get the ships back on their proper itineraries. Basel and the Upper Rhine valley are recovering. Here are the two graphs to show that: Hopefully the rain will subside and therefore Maxau return to a high but navigable level and not rise again. Have a great cruise. notamermaid

Okay, the terrible flooding of 2013 has been mentioned and certainly springs to mind. The gauges map now: And in 2013, same date, same hour: notamermaid

That is bad. They cleared out the famous sausage kitchen at the river I have read. The water is very close. In 2013 the building was partly submerged. Straubing-Bogen area is in a state of emergency, so is Kehlheim. Kehlheim gauge for context (it is just before the navigable river starts): Of course, all that water goes to Passau. Korneuburg in Austria is on mild flooding and rain is forecast for the Vienna area. notamermaid

Right. Maxau gauge has peaked at 829cm and is now down to 820cm. Current forecast says it is likely to stay above 750cm well into Wednesday. Just seen a report on Ludwigshafen, they expect serious flooding in the low lying areas close to the river, putting defenses up and strengthening dams. The city and Mannheim on the other bank get the Neckar river floods as the confluence is right there. Mannheim is still rising and is on navigational flood mark I. It is forecast to rise to navigational flood mark II during the night which (on paper) means a river traffic ban. If I read the confirmation in the online newspapers I will report it. Worms is still rising and is on navigational flood mark I. Worms is forecast to hit its navigational flood mark II, too. Mainz is also now fully seeing the wave and is on navigational flood mark I. Likewise Kaub. Koblenz will follow suite during the night. So will Andernach. Oberwinter will follow in the morning. Cologne will likely follow tomorrow evening. The Main river is also now carrying a higher volume of water but much of the rain has narrowly avoided the river itself and the Northern tributaries so this will not add that much water to this wave and the river does not go to official flooding from what it looks like now. Quick geography again, green normal, yellow elevated levels and so on: Heilbronn and Heidelberg is Neckar river, Worms and Mainz Rhine river, Aschaffenburg and Frankfurt Main river. It really has been a weird weather pattern. Today I have had frequent looks at the radar imaging and been out and about. Almost all the rain stayed below the line Büdingen - Hanau -Worms on this map. We have mainly had a mix of grey skies and a bit of blue in Rhineland- Palatinate. It is an eerily repeat of what happened eleven years ago almost to the day. The Rhine was very high, the Danube was terribly high creating a 100 year flood. On the Rhine this now is flooding that occurs every two to ten years (depending on gauge station). On the Danube it looks to be worse as regards the statistics. notamermaid

Thank you for finding us here. To keep it short at the moment - we have absolutely no clue as to what the river's levels will be in September. Even if it stops raining and we get a dry June (after tomorrow), July has good prospects now that we have flooding, but September is too far out. I am afraid to say that there has been low water in September and generally autumn is statistically the time for it. The difference between high and low water is that high water normally starts in the Upper Rhine valley (for our purposes here I say Basel to Karlsruhe/Maxau gauge) and can extend far downstream - like it is doing now - but low water always starts in the Rhine Gorge, meaning that is where ships struggle first with too little water under the keel. That is why I quote Kaub gauge, it marks low water best. Most cruises sail without problems but unfortunately we can never give a guarantee far into the future. Conditions can stay fine for months on end but we have had a wet winter so for the second time this year the river is high, in May we got away with it so to speak but this weather pattern this past week has been disastrous for parts of Southern Germany. notamermaid

That is some seriously nifty planning. That way you have overtaken the wave that is currently from Plittersdorf to Mainz (i.e. gauges at or rising to critical levels) and are in the clear. notamermaid

Awaiting the peak at Maxau and then focussing on what is happening further downstream. The whole river in Germany has now been put on flood alert. notamermaid

Hmm, err, in inimitably British fashion "keep calm and carry on" then. The Deggendorf authorities have a live feed running informing the locals of all measures, including safety road blocks including to the Danube harbour called "Freihafen". The authorities expect flood level 4 with the 8.00 metres clearly spelt out in the live feed. It may not get this far but 20cm sounds very optimistic. Looks more like 40cm to 60cm to me: Perhaps it is helpful. notamermaid

Koblenz has put up its flood defences. Maxau gauge has gone to 827cm and is still rising. Peak expected this evening. notamermaid

Could you tell me please which ones you know about apart from Karlsruhe/Maxau? I reckon Kembs lock. It has not happened at Worms yet, but is likely to happen. notamermaid

Yes. The problem in flooding (and low water) is where to dock all the ships. Parking a ship is a bit tricky with the limit allowed places there are, docking a passenger ship with safe access to land can be a real pain. Barges need to have spaces so they can keep to their rest breaks stipulated in the safety regulations. But right now the problem is that they all wait. Barges, tankers and all the river cruise ships together amounts to a lot. For a ship going through the Canal with an itinerary downstream to Budapest it may be best to stop at Nuremberg right now. From what I see on marinetraffic the Avalon Impression has been docked at Kelheim since late last night. This is likely the furthest she will get: To add further annoyance to all this, I read reports of an accident on the Main river. River traffic was halted yesterday due to oil leaking into the water. I have no time to follow this up. Passau is on flood level 3 and the river is still rising albeit a bit more slowly this morning. notamermaid

They upped their game a few years ago and appeared to be doing quite a bit for tourism when I was there. A nice old town with a bit of history. The surrounding hills not so attractive. I tend to agree that being on land may cause more problems than being on a ship right now. Passau especially is not a good place to roam around the emergency services right now as they are putting up all the defences and sand bags. I also doubt that Deggendorf has room and facilities for a hundred extra people needing a bed. However, flooding at Deggendorf is a little different from Passau as the old town is away from the river, a bit higher up. I remember the slope down to the harbour. It should help the town. Still, not comforting to @Yorkieboy1972. And I reckon emergency services would not be happy to have to take passengers of a ship in addition to their standard tasks in flooding, it is enough to handle life for the locals. By the way, Deggendorf does have a tourist information (which is closed on Sundays). At this point in time it may be more important to know what the harbour is like: https://www.hafen-deggendorf.de/pegel/ Deggendorf is expecting level 4, the highest level for flooding. notamermaid

If you believe the headlines in late summer the Rhine river is drying up. 😉 All to be taken with a bit of healthy scepticism, you are right. As a bit of brain relief from all the river gauge checking, I checked on the young, fit and healthy men chasing a ball last night on some grass in London. In fan terms, this was the Champions League final in Wembley Dortmund vs. Barcelona. My, were they skilful. Not saying who won. I am off soon, away from the computer, so better have a look at what the rivers are doing. My sky here looks a "stay at home" grey, but I have to go out. notamermaid

Eeek! Sorry to hear that. I hope the crew are watching this and are confident that this is safe. I need to retire now and wish you a safe night. Hope all goes well. notamermaid

What dock is that at Deggendorf?? I thought this was a tourist town... I am seriously puzzled. Could this be the second docking area because the prime location is occupied perhaps? It does not look comforting at all, especially going into the night. Stay safe @Yorkieboy1972. notamermaid

With the Danube, the Neckar and the Rhine flooding it is time to check on the Main. Yes, the river's levels are rising. Würzburg gauge has jumped from around 160cm yesterday to 220cm tonight; that is well above the mean, but not classified as high. The area has been getting quite a bit of rain but most clouds moved on to the Neckar river and Upper Danube river catchment area. notamermaid

By the way, waiting on the other side of the bridge at Straubing in the Viking Idi. But when the authorities ban river traffic no ship will sail any where on the stretch with the infamous bridge. The Pfelling area has this figure set at 620cm. The gauge is showing 630cm. I have no confirmation of a ban, the actual situation will be known by those directly on the river from the notification for skippers and direct contact with the authorities. In Regensburg there is talk of calling a state of emergency. The situation has got worse in the last few hours. The famous "Wurstküchl" restaurant is affected. Near Regensburg the Autobahn A3 is impassable. Not looking good at all. notamermaid

So to read that. You managed the bridge at Passau but now have to dock at Deggendorf as I reckon it it the last suitable port for river cruise ships before the bridge at Bogen. Which is not far from you: Not that it is any consolation it is just easy to see what the problem is right now as right at the bridge the barge "Insomnia" has presumably got stranded with the new river cruise ship hull. Hopefully you can get to see the area by coach, i.e. a plan B. At least Regensburg and Nuremberg. notamermaid