HKL helps in flood relief efforts

HKL Baumaschinen was one of the central European rental companies working hard on flood defence and clean up operations following heavy flooding in the Elbe and Danube rivers last week.

The Elbe was one of the worst affected rivers, with HKL helping local authorities, the army and fire departments to shore up flood defenses at Randau near Magdeburg in north eastern Germany.

The company provided wheeled loaders, tipper trucks and engine driven mini-dumpers to help distribute around 100000 sandbags around the river embankments.

“It was challenging”, said Christian Bahrenthien, HKL‘s customer adviser and coordinator on site, “People and machines working around the clock. I am very glad that we could help with our machines to protect the dikes."

The work - from delivery of sandbags to the staging area and then transport to the embankments – continued non-stop for 24 hours, with machine operators working in two shifts.

The floods - the worst seen since the major event in central Europe in 2002 – were the result of above average rainfall in May and further bad weather in early June. The worst affected areas were south and east Germany, western Czech Republic and Austria.

According to a forecast from Fitch Ratings, the flooding is estimated to have caused €12 billion of economic damage in Germany alone. Fitch said the damage was likely to be even costlier than the devastating 2002 floods that hit the same region, with insured losses estimated to reach between €2.5 billion and €3 billion.