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Floodwaters recede in Europe, at least 5 dead
May 24, 1999
Web posted at: 1:40 a.m. EDT (0540 GMT)
In this story: Hundreds evacuated Landslide kills German tourist RELATED STORIES, SITES 
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KONSTANZ, Germany (CNN) -- Floodwaters receded Monday after days of heavy rain in Europe's Alpine region turned streams into raging torrents and produced some of severest regional flooding of this century.
Heavy rain combined with melting snow from last winter proved a deadly combination, as floods killed at least five people in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
The floods triggered landslides and caused a dam to burst.
The German cities of Augsburg and Neu Ulm, in Bavaria, remained under flood alert Sunday. However, officials lifted alerts in seven towns cut off Saturday by flooding after a letup in rainfall reduced lake and river levels at higher elevations.
Hundreds evacuated
On Friday, hundreds of residents were evacuated from Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Immenstadt and Mittelwald in boats and helicopters.
Rising waters burst a dam near Augsburg and flooded the groundfloor of a hospital in Neu Ulm late Saturday. Patients were moved upstairs.
Water levels Sunday in Germany's Lake Constance, near the borders with Austria and Switzerland, were at the highest level in 200 years.
Police said cellars in lakeside homes were flooded but the situation had not reached emergency status.
Landslide kills German tourist
A German tourist died Saturday in a landslide that buried his vacation home in Amsteg, Switzerland.
Police in the town said the slide hit without warning.
"It went as quickly as a snow avalanche," said police spokesman Karl Egli.
He recalled that only three months ago, an avalanche in the same area, in the community of Bristen, killed one person.
In Austria, an elderly woman drowned in a river and a backhoe operator was buried by a landslide.
Two elderly men drowned Friday in their basements in Bavaria.
Rescuers in Germany saved a 17-year-old boy whose inflatable boat overturned Saturday as he was crossing a flooded river with his brother, who disappeared. Officials widened the search to neighboring Austria, where the Vils River converges with the Lech.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
RELATED SITES:
International Red Cross Database
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