DRESDEN, Germany -- After days battling a rising tide, relief workers in Dresden finally saw a glimmer of hope Saturday as the Elbe began to stabilize, but floods continued to wreak havoc elsewhere in east Germany.

Authorities said the Elbe had stabilized at about 9.40 meters (31 feet) -- its highest since records began in the 16th century -- and had dropped by one centimeter by midday.

A State Environment Ministry spokeswoman said the signs were that the Elbe in Dresden had peaked, marking a possible turning point amid the worst floods to hit Central Europe in living memory.

"We may have done it," she said, while adding that the danger was far from over.

However, water poured into the heart of the industrial town of Bitterfeld, the home of a number of important chemical plants, after breaching dams.

Thousands of volunteers scrambled to build makeshift dams, but half of the town was already under water, the Local Crisis Center said.

For the moment the chemical complex was dry, officials there said, adding that even if it sustained water damage, there was no ecological risk.

Most of the 16,000 inhabitants of Bitterfeld, which lies near the Mulde, a tributary of the Elbe, have evacuated their homes.

At Muehlberg, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) up the Elbe from Dresden, dykes finally gave way as police hurriedly evacuated the last few residents who had ignored earlier instructions to leave.

Relief workers had been evacuated an hour earlier.

"The danger to life and limb is simply too great," team leader Klaus Richter said then.

Evacuations were also ordered in neighboring villages. Likewise in Torgau, 15,000 residents have been forced to flee. "We are the last to leave," a Crisis Center spokesman said as it too moved to higher ground, AFP reported.

Extra soldiers were brought in to raise a dyke along the Elbe by a further half-meter in the Prignitz region. There are now some 10,000 troops on flood duty and another 3,000 on standby, the Defense Ministry said A railway bridge at Riesa collapsed, cutting the main line between Berlin, Leipzig and Dresden.

Meanwhile the situation in the Czech Republic and Austria, also especially badly hit by the floods that have ravaged much of Eastern and Central Europe, eased as river levels fell back.

Dresden, a baroque city known as the Florence on the Elbe for the splendor of its architecture and cultural treasures, has been worst hit.