Video: Chinooks begin dropping heavy rock bundles at Maastricht broken dam

Two Chinook helicopters from the Dutch military started lowering nets full of stones on a broken dam on Stuwweg in Maastricht. Closing off the dam to the greatest extent possible should reduce the rate of water discharge, and help retain as much water as possible, infrastructure agency Rijkswaterstaat said on Saturday morning.

The helicopter crews will spend the day lowering sixty nets containing 4,000 kilograms of stone rubble into the water to close the huge breach in the dam. This will make the construction of the emergency dam upstream from there less risky.

The construction of an emergency dam also got underway with the use of specialized machinery. Military engineers are helping a contractor with the construction project.

There are more than 30 houseboats in the canal where work is being done. They were evacuated a few days ago, when the dam was largely washed away by the fast-flowing water. The residents have been accommodated in hotels or have found shelter with family.

The emergency dam is being constructed to stop the inflow of water from the Maas, which should also enable the repair of the primary spillway there. The 120-meter spillway suffered a breach of 50 meters as the heavy water flow swept away a large portion of the structure.

One houseboat was pulled from its mooring as the water current intensified. It crashed into a bridge, which will also require emergency repairs. There were no injuries, as the area had already been evacuated because of the dam breach.