“A friend of mine who lived in that area lost all of his clothes, his house, his car, everything,” he told Al Jazeera.Īs soldiers arrived to help and the sounds of helicopters filled the air, locals began their own initiative, he said, setting up a Facebook group to coordinate and supply sandbags and food for their neighbours. Though Ahrends’ own home is located about 400 metres away from the flood, others were less fortunate. Laschet (4th L) and Mayor Carolin Weitzel (5th L) visit the emergency accommodations in Erftstadt No fatalities have yet been confirmed, though soldiers continue to search cars on an engulfed stretch of motorway nearby, where it is not known whether all drivers escaped. In nearby Blessem, the waters filled a gravel quarry, triggering a landslide that collapsed several houses and a historic castle.Īuthorities rescued 170 people, many of them airlifted to safety. Homes were gutted by the rising waters and cars now lie scattered like toys amid the debris. ![]() Calm, narrow riverĭuring his 20 years living in Erftstadt, Johannes Ahrends never had cause to worry about the calm, narrow river from which the town takes its name.īut this week’s deluge sent torrents rushing downstream, overwhelming flood defences and engulfing the town. Germany’s meteorological service has also issued weather alerts for south east Bavaria this weekend, where flooding is expected on the Danube. Wassenberg Mayor Marcel Maurer said the situation was stabilising, but it was “too early to give the all-clear”. Though floodwaters have receded in many areas, authorities remain on high alert.Ībout 700 residents from one district of Wassenberg, next to the Dutch border, were evacuated last night as a dam on the Ruhr broke. “We will do everything so that what needs to be rebuilt can be rebuilt.” “Their fate is ripping our hearts apart.” Steinmeier (3rd right) visits Erftstadt Īrmin Laschet, premier of NRW and favourite to succeed Angela Merkel as Chancellor after September’s elections, appeared alongside Steinmeier, and promised swift financial assistance to those affected. “We mourn with those that have lost friends, acquaintances, family members,” he said. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier visited Erftstadt in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) on Saturday, offering consolation to those hit by tragedy. ![]() Rescue operations continue, but have been hampered by extensive damage to infrastructure, with many roads damaged or impassable, phone networks down in several areas, and more than 100,000 people without power as of Friday evening. Tens of thousands of emergency services and at least 850 soldiers have been deployed to affected areas, using helicopters, armoured vehicles and boats to rescue people trapped by the waters and search through the remains of destroyed buildings. ![]() Some received as much as two months of rainfall in just 24 hours, Germany’s meteorological agency said. The tragedy has raised widespread concerns that German authorities have not done enough to prepare for increasingly frequent bouts of extreme weather, driven by climate change.īetween Tuesday and Thursday, an unusually static low-pressure zone dumped record levels of rainfall, with the worst-affected areas battered by intense storms over Wednesday night. The Ahrweiler district south of Cologne reported at least 110 dead, among them 12 residents of a care home for the disabled. In Germany, at least 156 people have died, making it the worst natural disaster to hit the country in almost 60 years. The scenes of devastation in Stolberg were replicated across swaths of western Germany and Belgium this week as floods devastated low-lying towns in the region.
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