1,000 evacuated in eastern Germany as rivers flood

Authorities have evacuated more than 1,000 people from their homes in eastern Germany as heavy rain and melting snow caused rivers to flood.

Families were moved from their homes along the Elbe River after it flooded part of several towns near the Czech border, said local government spokeswoman Annette Hoerichs.

Hoerichs said the river was still rising, but said there was no danger of a repeat of the catastrophic flooding that hit the city of Dresden and the surrounding region in 2002.

In Schoena, a town near the border, the Elbe had reached a level of nearly 24 feet by this morning, well short of the 39 feet recorded in 2002.