Word: cuxhaven
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...when the townspeople of the north German port of Cuxhaven were startled from their sleep by an eerie echo of the past: the wail of air-raid sirens. The howling horns, however, did not signal an air attack but the breeching of the town's dikes by one of the worst storms of the century...
Hardest hit was the north German coast. Between Cuxhaven and Bremerhaven, the water quickly rose to rooftop level. As the dikes of Bremerhaven crumbled, water flooded the city's zoo, drowning all the caged animals. Hamburg lost both its light and power for two days, and in its modern underground garages, scores of automobiles disappeared beneath the oily waves. Driven from their holes by the floods, packs of rats fed on the carcasses of dead animals. Fearing the pollution of the water supply, authorities flew water in by helicopter to combat the threat of typhoid and cholera...