Enlarge image
Guilt in Rhineland-Palatinate: The place in the Ahrweiler district was hit hard by the flood disaster
Photo: Boris Roessler / dpa
Complete stretches of land have been devastated, places cut off from the outside world, houses washed away: at least 43 people died in storms in western Germany.
Dozens of people are missing in Rhineland-Palatinate.
“We have never seen a disaster like this.
It is really devastating, «said Prime Minister Malu Dreyer (SPD) in Mainz.
After the continuous rain, the situation is confusing in many places in Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia. Streets were flooded, cellars overflowed. Rescuers brought people to safety in flooded areas, some with boats. Many sought protection from the floods on trees and house roofs, and rescue helicopters were in action. Dreyer said it was difficult to reach the missing because the cellular network had partially failed.
Politicians made their way to the disaster area. NRW Prime Minister and CDU Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet got
an idea of the situation
in
Altena
and
Hagen
. Around 440 firefighters from the fire brigade and technical aid organization and a hundred forces from the German armed forces were out and about in Hagen alone to master the water masses. Laschet had broken off a trip through southern Germany and also canceled his participation in the CSU retreat in Seeon, Bavaria.
Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) interrupted his vacation because of the flood.
The ministry announced in Berlin that the Federal Finance Minister and SPD candidate for Chancellor wanted to get an idea of the situation in the disaster area together with Dreyer on Thursday.
The Green Chancellor candidate Annalena Baerbock is also returning prematurely from vacation.
Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) thanked the helpers.
"I am shocked by the disaster that so many people have to suffer in the flood areas," said Merkel, according to a tweet from government spokesman Steffen Seibert.
“My condolences go out to the relatives of the dead and missing.
I thank the many tireless helpers and emergency services from the bottom of my heart. «EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen promised help to the countries affected by the flood disaster.
The environmental protection organization Greenpeace described the "current extreme weather" such as heavy rain, floods and floods as the consequences of the climate crisis. "And that's just the beginning," said climate expert Karsten Smid. “With global warming, temperatures are rising to new record levels all over the world.” The atmosphere is heating up and discharging in the form of storms. Smid criticized that the federal government never provided sufficient solutions for climate protection.
In
Rhineland-Palatinate
, several places in the
Eifel were
particularly hard hit by the flood.
"Unfortunately, we have to confirm that the number of fatalities in connection with the flood disaster in
the Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler area has now
risen
to a total of 18," said the police on Twitter in the afternoon.
"Our deepest condolences go out to all those affected." In the early evening it was announced that another person had died in the floods.
Dozens of people were still missing.
The districts of
Bitburg-Prüm, Vulkaneifel and Trier-Saarburg
are also seriously affected
.
In many cases, daycare centers and schools had to remain closed.
In
debt to the Ahr
, four houses were completely washed away and two other houses half washed away on Thursday night, according to the police in Koblenz.
A large number of other buildings are in danger of collapsing.
The floods cut off several places from the outside world.
About 50 people were rescued from the rooftops on which they had sought refuge.
In the Eifel district of Bitburg-Prüm, too, people were trapped in their homes by the water masses.
The residents of several communities were affected by power outages and restrictions on the drinking water supply.
The situation
in
North Rhine-Westphalia also
remains tense.
After the heavy rain has subsided, fire brigades and other emergency services are struggling in many places with the worsening flood situation.
At least 24 people died.
The Cologne police reported 20 deaths in the region.
In addition to two
deaths found
in
Cologne
,
15
have so far been reported from
Euskirchen
and
three
from
Rheinbach
, the police said in the afternoon.
Not all corpses sighted have been recovered yet.
It was previously known that people died in connection with the storm in other parts of North Rhine-Westphalia.
In
Kamen
, a 77-year-old was killed in a submerged cellar of his house.
In
Solingen
, an 82-year-old man died after a fall in the flooded house cellar.
In addition, two firemen died.
A 52-year-old firefighter collapsed during a storm in
Werdohl
in the Sauerland region
and died despite attempts at resuscitation.
A few hours earlier,
a firefighter drowned while rescuing a man
in
Altena
in the Sauerland region.
Limited rail traffic
Many rivers and streams in the Eifel, Bergisches Land, Rhineland and Sauerland flood and burst their banks on Wednesday and Thursday night.
Streets were flooded, cellars overflowed.
Regional and long-distance traffic in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate is still severely restricted due to the severe weather conditions.
Tracks, switches and signaling technology are badly damaged in many parts of the country, said Deutsche Bahn.
Train stations and signal boxes are also affected.
"The potential for severe weather drops significantly"
According to the German Weather Service (DWD), the peak of extreme rainfall in parts of Germany has been exceeded.
The DWD meteorologist Marco Manitta expected "an easing of the weather".
Although there could still be "punctual heavy rain", this was no longer as widespread as last night, said Manitta.
"The potential for severe weather drops significantly."
According to Manitta, the greatest amounts of precipitation occurred in a wide strip from the Sauerland over the Bergisches Land and the Eifel, the greater Cologne / Bonn area to the border with Luxembourg.
The front runner was Rheinbach-Todenfeld (Rhein-Sieg-Kreis in North Rhine-Westphalia) with 158 millimeters of water in the 24-hour measurement period - most of which fell in a shorter period of time, as the expert explained.
wit / dpa / Reuters