German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Sunday that after an area of Bavaria was hit by extreme weather and the death toll in the area rose to 184, floods destroyed parts of Europe.
Merkel promised to provide rapid financial assistance after visiting one of the areas most affected by record rainfall and flooding. These areas have caused at least 157 deaths in Germany alone in recent days. This is the country’s nearly sixty years. The worst natural disaster.
“This is terrible,” she told the residents of the small town of Adenau in the Rhineland-Palatinate state. “German can hardly describe the destruction that occurred.”
On Sunday, an area of Bavaria in southern Germany suffered a flash flood, killing at least one person, and the disaster continues.
The road turned into a river, some vehicles were washed away, and large tracts of land were buried in thick mud in Berchtesgaden. Hundreds of rescue workers are looking for survivors in the area bordering Austria.
“We were not prepared for this,” said Bernhard Kern, the district administrator of Berchtesgadener Land, adding that the situation deteriorated “rapidly” late Saturday and there was little time for emergency services to take action.
In the worst-hit Ahrweiler district in southern Cologne, about 110 people were killed. The police said that as the floods recede, more bodies are expected to be found there.
The European floods that began on Wednesday mainly hit parts of Germany’s Rhineland Palatinate, North Rhine-Westphalia and Belgium. The entire community was cut off, without electricity or communications.
In North Rhine-Westphalia, at least 46 people have died, compared with 27 deaths in Belgium.
German Finance Minister Olaf Schultz told the weekly newspaper Bild am Sonntag that the German government will immediately prepare more than 300 million euros (354 million US dollars) and billions of euros for repairing collapsed houses, streets and bridges.
“The loss is huge. It’s clear: Those who have lost their business and house cannot contain the loss alone.”
Climate change has caused heavy rains, and scientists warn that floods have hit Western Europe
The Minister of Economy, Peter Altmaier, told the newspaper that a short-term payment of 10,000 euros may also be provided to businesses affected by the flooding and the COVID-19 pandemic.
power failure
For a long time, scientists have stated that climate change will lead to greater downpours, but it will still take several weeks to determine its role in these relentless rains.
Belgium will hold a national day of mourning on Tuesday, the water level drops on Sunday, and clean-up work is underway. The army was sent to the eastern town of Pepinster, where more than a dozen buildings collapsed in search of more victims.
Thousands of people do not have electricity, and the Belgian authorities say that the supply of clean drinking water is also a big problem.
Dutch emergency services officials said that the situation in the southern part of Limburg has stabilized. Tens of thousands have been evacuated in recent days, but the northern part is still on high alert.
“In the north, they are closely monitoring the dams and whether they will be held,” Jos Teeuwen of the Regional Water Authority said at a news conference on Sunday.
In the southern part of Limburg, the authorities still worry about the safety of roads and bridges and other transportation infrastructures, which have been hit by high water levels.
So far, the Netherlands has only reported property damage caused by floods, and no deaths or missing persons have been reported.
In Hallein, an Austrian town near Salzburg, on Saturday night, as the Kottbach River burst its banks, a powerful flood flooded the city center, but no casualties were reported.
Many areas in Salzburg and neighboring provinces are still on alert, and rain will continue on Sunday. West Tyrol reports that water levels in some areas are at high levels not seen in more than 30 years.
Parts of Switzerland are still in flood warning status, although the threat posed by some of the most dangerous water bodies, such as Lake Lucerne and the Aare River in Bern, has eased.
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