The polders in the state have already been flooded. 3000 hectares of the Lower Oder Valley National Park are already under water, and another 2000 hectares may yet come to be. The height of the incoming flood water can only be estimated at the present time. Reliable reports are no longer available out of Poland, where the water level gauges have been swept away by the flood. Evacuation plans for Frankfurt and the surrounding area have been worked out, and there are a million sandbags standing by.
Federal cabinet agrees on changes to law on nuclear power plants Bonn.
The federal cabinet has decided on controversial changes to the law governing nuclear power plants in Germany. In the future, plants will, for the first time, be able to be built without the approval of the state affected. The new bill provides for a permit procedure entirely under federal control, regardless of the location. The expropriation of land to build a plant upon will also be made easier. This latter clause arises after the case of a property owner in Gorleben, in Lower Saxony, who has so far successfully refused to give up his land, making use of the Mining Law against exploration of the alpenstock.