German floods leave 58 dead and dozens still missing

Germany’s worst flooding in years has killed 58 people and left dozens missing after days of heavy rains that politicians have linked to climate change.

The rivers burst their banks through large parts of western Germany, with water flooding the houses that were in their path. German television news showed images of urban centers full of rubbish from dilapidated houses, uprooted trees and overturned cars.

Helicopters fixed dozens of people to protect themselves from the treetops and roofs of their homes as water flooded around them. Twenty people died in the city of Cologne and around the Rhineland, with two of them drowned in their flooded wineries. Up to 165,000 have been left without electricity

Angela Merkel, who is in Washington to talk to U.S. President Joe Biden, promised government aid to those affected by the floods. The victims could “be sure that we will deploy all the powers of the state to save lives, avoid threats and alleviate the anguish of the people,” the German chancellor said.

Armin Laschet, Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia and candidate for chancellor in the German national elections in September of the center-right bloc CDU / CSU, visited one of the most affected cities, Hagen and, while there, related floods with climate change.

“We will face these events over and over again, and that means we need to accelerate climate protection measures (at European, federal and global levels) so that climate change is not limited to a single state,” he said. to say.

Two other candidates for chancellor – Annalena Baerbock of the Greens and Social Democrat Olaf Scholz – broke their summer holidays to assess the situation in the flooded areas.

Several cities, including Altena near Wuppertal, were cut off from the outside world by rising water. Rail services and mobile phone coverage were disrupted, several cities experienced power outages and drinking water supplies were affected. Hospitals in the cities of Leverkusen and Eschweiler in the Rhine area had to be evacuated.

Other countries also experienced flooding. In Belgium, two men died after torrential rains and a 15-year-old girl went missing after being swept away by the waters. About a dozen houses collapsed in Pepinster after the Vesdre River broke its banks and residents were evacuated from more than 1,000 homes.

Meteorologists blamed a low-pressure weather system – “Bernd” – that carried hot, humid Mediterranean air to northern and eastern Germany and was locked by two high-pressure areas that prevented it from continuing.

“In the last two days, some areas recorded more than 200 liters of rain per square meter,” said Mark Eisenmann, a meteorologist for the German television channel ARD. “Extreme levels [of rain] they arrived unprecedented. And the effects were therefore dramatic. “

He said the volume of rain was so great “that it was no longer absorbed by the rivers [or] the sun “.

Five people died and dozens disappeared in and around Ahrweiler, in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, in western Germany. Heavy rains turned the Ahr River, which flows into the Rhine, into a spring torrent that destroyed nearly 100 houses and damaged 10 schools.

The damage was particularly shocking In Schuld, a small town in the Ahr, near the border with Belgium, where four houses were completely devastated by the flood.

“There are dead people, there are missing people, there are many who are still in danger,” said Malu Dreyer, governor of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. “It’s really devastating.”