Dresden, Germany ? The muddy waters of the Elbe River reached their peak then eased back Saturday, raising hope that the city’s restored historic buildings might be spared more damage from the disastrous flooding that has swept much of Europe.

Downstream from Dresden, though, the rain-swollen river spilled over its banks into several more towns of eastern Germany, wrecking roads and railways and chasing thousands of people to higher ground.

Some 100 volunteers fill sandbags in the eastern German town of Losswig near Torgau to stabilize earthworks on the Elbe. The river crested at 31 feet Saturday in Dresden, but flooding fears persisted downstream.

The roar of generators powering huge pumps filled Dresden’s baroque Theater Square as workers battled to keep water lapping at the square from spilling into the Semper Opera and the Zwinger Palace museum. Firehoses spewed water that seeped through sandbags back over the barriers.

Crowds of townspeople gathered to watch the fight to protect the city’s old buildings, which were painstakingly rebuilt after World War II. Some took snapshots or videos.

“The crest has been reached; it won’t get worse,” said a retired miner, Gunter Weyhmann, 78.

“If it doesn’t rain,” his 80-year-old wife, Henny, added warily. “Dresden was completely destroyed in the war and we were glad to see it rebuilt and now this.”

City officials said the river had fallen a few inches from a record high of just under 31 feet early Saturday. Worse had been feared as the Elbe swelled with waters that flowed downstream from the floods that hit the Czech Republic last week.

At Dresden’s Zwinger Palace, whose collection of Old Masters had been taken to higher floors, the pumps were holding their own against groundwater seeping into the basement through foundations and sewers.

“The art is secure, the building is damaged, and the water is stable. We just hope we can pull through,” said museum spokesman Tilmann Stockhausen.

The floods have caused at least 105 deaths across Europe the past few weeks

With more than 100,000 people evacuated or getting ready to leave their homes, emergency accommodations were set up in schools and shopping malls. Red Cross workers were erecting a tent city for up to 10,000 people in Pirna.

Farther north, rivers broke through or spilled over defenses near at least three towns.

Water seeped through sandbags close to the near-deserted village of Muehlberg in Brandenburg state.