Denmark cleans up damage after floods wreak havoc

Emergency teams in Denmark are continuing to clean up the damage caused by severe flooding in the western part of the country over the weekend.

More than 140 litres of rain per square metre fell in the port city of Esbjerg and surrounding areas on the Danish North Sea coast, according to the Danish weather service.

Local police said a motorway near Esbjerg had to be temporarily closed.

Denmark’s emergency services are now calling for more equipment, personnel and better training amid concerns that weather conditions will become even more extreme in the future.

“Emergency preparedness is Denmark’s disaster insurance, and we have to say when the policy is running out,” Bjarne Nigaard, Head of Secretariat of the Danish emergency services, said.

He added that extreme weather events were getting more violent and wilder.

Njgaard’s words were echoed by Denmark’s Minister for Community Security and Preparedness, Torsten Schack Pedersen, who added that extreme weather events seen today were not the same five or ten years ago.

“We’re seeing more and more of these extreme weather events, and it’s not something we had to deal with to nearly the same extent just five or ten years ago. And it’s clear that it poses new challenges,” Pederson said.

There has already been a significant increase in rainfall in the last few years, according to the country’s weather service which recorded 972.7 litres of rainfall per square metre in 2023 — the largest amount since records began.