More than 60 people died and dozens went missing when severe floods in Germany and Belgium turned streams and roads into torrential torrents, swept away cars and brought down houses.
“I mourn those who lost their lives in this disaster,” said Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday during a visit to Washington and expressed her shock at the extent of the floods. “We still don’t know the number. But there will be many. “
She promised to do everything possible to find those still missing, adding, “‘Heavy rain and floods’ do not capture what happened.”
The German authorities announced late that at least 58 people were likely to have died, an increase from the previous number of 45 deaths.
The North Rhine-Westphalian Ministry of the Interior counted four other recovered bodies, which increased the region’s toll to “at least 30”, while neighboring Rhineland-Palatinate said nine more deaths were likely in addition to the 19 already reported.
Separately, the Belgian media reported eight deaths in this country.
One of the worst hit German villages was Schuld, where several houses collapsed and dozens of people went missing.
Rescue operations were hampered by blocked roads as well as telephone and internet failures in the Eifel, a volcanic region with rolling hills and small valleys. Some villages were reduced to rubble as old brick and wooden houses could not withstand the sudden rush of water and often carried trees and other debris streaming down the narrow streets.
Karl-Heinz Grimm, who found himself in debt to help his parents, said that he had never seen little Ahr fall in such a deadly stream.
“It was like madness that night,” he said.
Dozens of people had to be rescued from the roofs of their homes by rubber dinghies and helicopters. Hundreds of soldiers were deployed to support the rescue effort.
“There are dead, there are missing, there are many who are still in danger,” said the Rhineland-Palatinate governor Malu Dreyer in front of the state parliament. “We have never seen such a disaster. It’s really devastating. “
Large parts of western Germany were hit by heavy continuous rain on Wednesday night, which continued on Thursday and led to local flash floods that destroyed buildings and swept away cars [Sascha Steinbach/EPA]
In Belgium, the Vesdre has overflowed and washed water through the streets of Pepinster near Liege, where a fire brigade rescue operation failed when a small boat capsized and three elderly people disappeared.
“Unfortunately, they were quickly devoured,” said Mayor Philippe Godin. “I’m afraid they are dead.”
In Verviers, prosecutors said several bodies had been found but could not confirm local media reports that four people were killed there.
Major highways have been flooded in the southern and eastern parts of the country and the railroad announced that all trains have been stopped.
In Liège, a city with 200,000 inhabitants, the Meuse overflowed its banks on Thursday and the mayor asked residents to move to higher areas.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen agreed to help and tweeted: “My thoughts go with the families of the victims of the devastating floods in Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands and those who have lost their homes.”
The village of Schuld in the district of Ahrweiler is destroyed in Schuld after severe flooding of the Ahr [Sascha Steinbach/EPA]
The full extent of the damage was still unclear, as many villages were cut off by floods and landslides that made roads impassable. Videos on social media showed cars floating through streets and houses partially collapsing. Many of the dead were not discovered until after the floods receded.
The authorities in the Rhein-Sieg district south of Cologne ordered the evacuation of several villages below the Steinbach reservoir for fear of a dam break.
Laschet, a conservative running to succeed Merkel as chancellor in the fall elections, said the unusually severe storms and an earlier heatwave could be linked to climate change. Political opponents have criticized Laschet, the son of a miner, for supporting the region’s coal industry and hindering the expansion of wind power during his tenure.
Rail, road and river traffic were interrupted [Friedemann Vogel/EPA]
In the Netherlands, King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima visited the hard-hit Dutch city of Valkenburg on Thursday evening to support residents and rescue services. Floods turned the main street into a torrent of brown water that inundated homes and businesses.
The Dutch government sent around 70 soldiers to the southern Limburg province late Wednesday to help with evacuations and sandbags.
Thousands of people in districts of the city of Maastricht and other villages along the Meuse were ordered to evacuate when flooding threatened and centers for their accommodation were set up. The Meuse is the Dutch name for the Meuse.
After heavy rains in Valkenburg, the Netherlands, people are evacuated from a flood-affected area [Niroschka Van De Wouw/Reuters]
