Enlarge image
Flood in Aachen: "Extremely difficult situation"
Photo: Ralf Roeger / dpa
Fully filled cellars, an evacuated retirement home, motorists trapped by masses of water: Heavy rain has led to states of emergency and numerous fire services in some regions of Germany.
In Altena in the Sauerland, a firefighter died during rescue work after the heavy rain.
The police said he drowned.
While the situation initially calmed down in some places on Wednesday, North Rhine-Westphalia in particular was still badly affected, especially the state capital Düsseldorf and Hagen in the Ruhr area.
North Rhine-Westphalia Interior Minister Herbert Reul spoke of an "extremely difficult situation" in some regions of the state.
"The further development is currently not foreseeable with certainty," said the CDU politician of the German press agency.
According to the German Weather Service (DWD), the low »Bernd« will bring heavy rainfall in some regions of Germany in the coming days.
The city of Düsseldorf asked residents in the Grafenberg district to leave their apartments on Wednesday due to the threat of flooding.
The city announced that around 350 buildings in the Ostparkiedlung were particularly affected by the rising floods in the northern Düssel.
In heavy rain, the flat roof of a retail store in a shopping center in Würselen near Aachen collapsed on Wednesday.
An injured person was able to save himself, the city said.
"Presumably the roof did not withstand the masses of water (...)." The area had been searched with rescue dogs, but no other people were discovered in the building.
Crisis team meets in Hagen - old people's home is evacuated
A retirement home with 76 residents in Hagen was evacuated due to the inflow of water.
"The retirement home is very badly affected and has become uninhabitable," said a city spokesman.
Parents were asked not to send their children to daycare and not to use the holiday care at the primary schools.
A buried person was rescued with minor injuries.
Several drivers were released from their cars, which were trapped by water.
There were at least 200 locations.
Some parts of the town could no longer be reached.
"The people are desperate," said a spokesman for the Hagen Police Department.
North Rhine-Westphalia's Prime Minister Armin Laschet (CDU) wants to come to Hagen this Thursday.
The State Chancellery announced that he wanted to get an idea of the region that was particularly affected.
In other parts of the state, too, brooks turned into torrential rivers. There were landslides, streets were flooded, cellars overflowed, rail and road traffic were disrupted. An employee of a retirement home in Mettmann near Düsseldorf was seriously injured by a falling tree and almost drowned. A helper was able to hold the woman's head above water until firefighters had freed the trapped woman.
The fire brigade in Cologne reported 180 weather-related missions. In the evening, the A1 autobahn in Cologne between the Cologne-West and Cologne-Bocklemünd junction was closed in both directions. According to the Rhineland Motorway Company, the reason was a flooded tunnel from which the pumps could not pump out the water quickly enough. In the evening, the WDR reported flooded lanes or storm damage on motorways 43, 44, 59, 61 and 553. At around 10 p.m., traffic jammed across the country for a total of 60 kilometers.
In Düsseldorf, the fire brigade deployed around 330 missions.
The Rheinmetall Group's underground car park was also affected - the water there was 40 centimeters high.
Firemen worked for hours to protect works of art worth around five million euros in a gallery.
In Erkrath, near the state capital, around 100 residents had to leave accommodation for refugees.
Flood warning values have been exceeded on numerous rivers in North Rhine-Westphalia.
Disaster declared in Vulkaneifel - schools closed
The disaster was declared in the Rhineland-Palatinate district of Vulkaneifel.
"The situation is very serious, we have many flooded streets and towns that can no longer be reached," said District Administrator Julia Gieseking (SPD) on Wednesday evening in Daun.
The schools in the district should remain closed on Thursday.
In Altena in the Sauerland, emergency services fought against water, earth and debris, as a fire department spokesman reported.
From the surrounding slopes, large amounts of water fell onto the city in several places, causing "massive slips".
So far there have been no injuries.
In addition, there was a threat of flooding the historic city center of Kornelimünster in Aachen.
Rainfalls are expected to subside in the west
In the Saxon Erzgebirge district, a 53-year-old was swept away by a flash flood and was still missing until Wednesday afternoon.
The man had tried on Tuesday evening because of the sharp rise in the level of the village stream to protect his property from the masses of water.
According to local residents, he was swept away.
According to DWD forecasts, the rains on Thursday will decrease in the west and increasingly move to the southwest and south.
However, the amount of water in the area is no longer as pronounced as expected on Wednesday in the west.
Thunderstorm-like heavy rainfalls could not be ruled out locally.
mjm / dpa