Alme (river)

Alme
Origin	Sauerland
Mouth	Lippe 51°44′55″N 8°42′25″E
Basin countries	Germany
Length	50 km
Source elevation	±340 m

Mouth of the Alme.

The Alme is a 50 km long river in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is a left tributary of the Lippe, into which it flows near Paderborn. The Alme defines the Alme Valley and flows through the towns Büren, Borchen and Paderborn.

Tributaries

• Nette
• Gosse (river)
• Afte
• Altenau

History

Flood of 1965

In July 1965 an extraordinary Flood happened which became part of history as a local flood of the century called "Heinrichsflut" (Henry-Flood). After heavy rain on July 15th, 16th and 17th, cellars were flooded. In the village Wewelsburg a bridge was crashed, pioneers of the Army had to be involved. Streets transformed to rivers, the trains- and bus-traffic had to be stopped. As a reuslt of the flood, which also involved the Tributaries of the Alme and the Lippe, the "Wasserverband Obere Lippe" was founded, targeting on preventing for floods in the future by building detention basins.

Flood of 2007

Flood of the Alme on August 22nd 2007 near Wewelsburg

On August 22nd 2007 the Alme flooded around Büren, after heavy rainfalls of partly 70 l rain/m² in one night. In the Village Weine the record of 1965 was overflooded. Even though the flood was not as dramatic as that of 1965 the schools in Büren had to be closed earlier than usual, some streets could not be passed. 220 firemen of the local fire brigades had to clear out flooded cellars and to prepare several houses by using Sandbags.