On the night of 16 to 17 February 1962, a storm surge reached 5.70 meters above standard sea level at the St. Pauli gauge in Hamburg. Dikes broke in more than 60 places, and about a sixth of the city was flooded. In Hamburg, 315 people died. More than 40,000 soldiers of the Bundeswehr were deployed, although the constitution did not provide for the armed forces to act at home. The police senator, Helmut Schmidt, had asked for them. Afterwards, the dikes in the Hamburg area were raised to at least eight meters above sea level. In 1976, the water rose much higher than in 1962. There were losses in the port, but the city itself suffered no significant losses.