Storm in North Rhine-Westphalia: House collapses in the Eifel

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Guilt: Six houses collapsed

Photo: WOLFGANG RATTAY / REUTERS

The low »Bernd« caused chaos in parts of Germany with heavy rain and thunderstorms.

Four people

died in the

Eifel district of Ahrweiler

in Rhineland-Palatinate

on Thursday night

.

The exact circumstances are still unclear, the victims were found in different places, said a police spokesman in Koblenz.

In the Eifel town of

Schuld bei Adenau

, six houses collapsed during the night.

About 70 people are missing.

A large number of houses are unstable and there is a risk of collapse.

The disaster had been declared.

The entire district of Ahrweiler was affected by the storm, said the spokesman.

Several places were therefore cut off from the outside world because of the flood.

About 50 people are there on the roofs of houses and need to be rescued.

• Follow the current events here in the

  severe weather update

According to a district spokesman, the situation

in the

Eifel district of Bitburg-Prüm

is extremely dangerous due to flooding.

According to the district, two helpers from the technical relief organization were trapped in the floods in Messerich in the Eifel, and there is a risk to life, as the SWR reported.

On Wednesday evening, the authorities in the Ahrweiler district reported extreme heavy rain.

At the »Stahlhütte« campsite in Dorsel (Ahrweiler district) and other facilities along the Ahr, people had to be rescued from the roofs of their caravans.

In

North Rhine-Westphalia

,

too

, the situation remains tense after the continuous rain.

After the heavy rain has subsided, the fire brigade and other emergency services are fighting in many places with a worsening flood situation.

The North Rhine-Westphalian Prime Minister Armin Laschet (CDU) wanted to visit the city of

Hagen,

which was particularly badly affected by the flood, on Thursday morning

get a picture of the situation.

There, the flooding of the Volme worsened the situation again on Wednesday evening.

Around 440 firefighters and technical aid workers were there alone.

The CDU chief canceled his planned visit to the CSU regional group's retreat in Seeon, Bavaria.

The State Chancellery in Düsseldorf announced on Thursday.

Laschet had broken off his trip through southern Germany and returned to North Rhine-Westphalia that night.

In

the

Euskirchen

district

, the dam of the Steinbach dam threatened to overflow on Thursday night.

The situation was also critical at times at the Bevertalsperre and the Wupper Reservoirs.

There, however, the water could flow away in a controlled manner, as the fire brigade announced.

In

Solingen

an 82 year old man died after falling in the flooded basement of his house.

In the fall, his head got under water, said a spokeswoman for the Wuppertal police on Thursday.

In

Sauerland

two firefighters died in the rescue operations.

A 46-year-old firefighter fell into the water on Wednesday afternoon in Altena after rescuing a man from a flooded district and drifted away.

Almost two hours later, a 52-year-old firefighter collapsed while working in the area of ​​the Werdohl-Elverlingsen power plant.

Police said he died on Wednesday evening despite resuscitation and relief measures.

According to initial findings, the accident was a health emergency.

Bahn advises against trips to NRW

In many places people had to be brought to safety from the floods.

There were also

large-scale power outages

.

A spokeswoman for the network operator Westnetz reported on Thursday morning that around 190,000 households were without electricity because substations and other systems were flooded and had to be switched off.

The Bergisches Land and the Eifel are particularly affected.

Also, the

rail traffic

is severely impaired by the flooding and the continuous rain.

The railway called for trips to and from North Rhine-Westphalia to be postponed if possible.

Due to line closures, numerous S-Bahn and regional lines do not run or only run to a limited extent, as Deutsche Bahn announced on Thursday.

There are also significant weather effects on the motorways.

The low »Bernd« determines the weather in Germany with warm, humid air masses.

According to the DWD, it will remain changeable in the next few days with showers and thunderstorms, sometimes with heavy rain.

ptz / dpa