Hurricane Capella rages in the north in January 1976

All crew members of the "Capella" die in the North Sea when the hurricane of the same name rages on January 3, 1976. Water masses flood the country on the Lower Elbe. In Hamburg, the water is rising higher than ever before.

by Irene Altenmüller

In the early hours of the morning on the first Saturday in January 1976, a severe storm reached the German Bight. Hurricane "Capella" whips the water of the North Sea onto the coasts at up to 150 kilometers per hour. In conjunction with a spring tide, the hitherto highest storm surge on the German North Sea coast since measurements began. The waves are up to 17 meters high. The wind forces the water into the Elbe estuary:"The water flowed from the North Sea into the Elbe at tremendous speed. It almost reached the top of the dyke. The storm raged in the dark, everything was blocked off," remembers Dirk Hempel, who watched the flood at the Kugelbake in Cuxhaven as a ten-year-old.

In Hamburg, the water is rising higher than ever

In less than three hours, the tidal wave travels the distance from Cuxhaven to Hamburg, rising again by more than a meter. When the water reached Hamburg, the St. Pauli level was 6.45 meters - to this day the highest level ever measured. During the storm surge of 1962, which cost the lives of more than 300 people, it was 5.70 meters. But this time Hamburg is spared a major catastrophe, the dykes have now been renewed and raised, nobody dies. However, the material damage is immense:In the unprotected port areas in front of the dykes, entire stocks of goods and expensive machines are destroyed and companies are flooded. The damage in the Hanseatic city is estimated at up to one billion Deutschmarks.

The dikes break - whole areas flooded

On the Lower Elbe, the dykes, some of which are more than 100 years old and have not been raised since then, cannot withstand the force of the water. In Drochtersen near Stade it tears away the top of the dyke and flows far into the Kehdinger Land. Weeks later, the low-lying, partly boggy areas are still flooded. On the northern side of the Elbe, the dyke breaks in nine places in the Haseldorfer Marsch near Wedel. The water pours into the land, 150 farms are destroyed. People don't die, but hundreds of cows, sheep, pigs and chickens drown, as well as countless wild animals such as deer, rabbits and pheasants.

Evacuation by boat and helicopter

In these two regions alone, around 100,000 hectares of land are flooded - an area the size of what was then West Berlin. There is also considerable damage to the coasts:in Christianskoog near Meldorf the dyke breaks over a length of 30 metres, on Sylt it is feared at times that the water will divide the island between Rantum and Hörnum. Damages amounting to around 150 million Deutschmarks occur in Schleswig-Holstein alone, in Lower Saxony they are around 50 million Deutschmarks. Measured by the force of the hurricane and the tidal wave, northern Germany could have been far worse. But almost 14 years after the catastrophic storm surge of 1962, preparations are made:Disaster batons are deployed immediately, people trapped by the water are flown out with helicopters or brought to safety with assault boats. More than 6,000 helpers are on duty.

GDR motor ship "Capella" sinks - entire crew dies

For the eleven crew members of the GDR coaster "Capella" from Rostock, the help comes too late:on the North Sea near the East Frisian Islands, the coastal cargo ship breaks a leak in stormy seas. After emergency repairs, the ship's management believes that they can still reach the island of Borkum and initially refuses to rescue the crew. A little later the "Capella" sinks. Neither a sea rescue cruiser nor a helicopter manages to rescue the sailors still floating on the water. All eleven crew members die.

The tragic sinking of the ship is commemorated by the name that the hurricane of January 3, 1976 has had ever since:"Capella". In total, at least 16 people die as a result of the hurricane in Germany, and 82 in all of north-western Europe.