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The Rurtalsperre in NRW has been overflowing since shortly before midnight
Photo: Lino Mirgeler / dpa
This article is continuously updated.
Three seriously injured people
rescued
from the
Wurm
River
04.05:
The fire brigade rescued three people from the Wurm river on Thursday evening who had threatened to drown there. As the district police authority Heinsberg announced, two men and a woman were on a boat near Übach-Palenberg (Heinsberg district) on the Wurm. The fire brigade was able to bring her to safety, and an ambulance brought her seriously injured to a hospital.
Another person was found nearby who was then given medical treatment in the ambulance, the police said.
She too had apparently been on a boat on the river, as the first police investigations showed.
Since it could not be ruled out that there were other people on the boats, the fire brigade and police as well as the rescue service looked for other possible injuries.
The police expressly called for people to stay at home and thus support the work of the rescue workers in the Heinsberg district.
"Do not put yourself or other people in danger." The rivers had risen so much due to the rains that it would be life-threatening to go near them or even to navigate them with boats, warned the police.
Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler: cellular network paralyzed, numerous missing persons
03.48 a.m.:
In the Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler district (Rhineland-Palatinate) around 1,300 people are missing, as the district administration announced in the evening.
A spokeswoman pointed out that many people could not be reached because of the paralyzed cellular network.
"We hope this clears up," she said to the large number.
Flood damage: Laschet calls for "national effort"
03:01 am:
Prime Minister Armin Laschet (CDU) said on Thursday evening in the ZDF program "Maybrit Illner" that ways must be found to get roads, bridges and other infrastructure
going
again very quickly.
The country will help, but "a great national effort is also necessary so that the worst things can be eliminated quickly."
The water level at Steinbachtalsperre in NRW is falling
02.23 a.m.:
In the severely affected district of Euskirchen in North Rhine-Westphalia, an expert is to take another close look at the Steinbach dam on Friday.
The water level had dropped on Thursday evening due to pumping.
The process water dam, the dam of which has deep furrows, had been classified by an expert as "very unstable" the day before.
Because of this, several villages were evacuated for safety reasons.
Around 4,500 residents were affected.
Maltese from the southwest are helping in Rhineland-Palatinate
12:19 a.m.:
Rescue workers from the Malteser relief service from the southwest support the rescue workers in the Ahrweiler district in Rhineland-Palatinate, which is particularly hard hit by the floods. On behalf of the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Interior, the Maltese made their way to the disaster area on Thursday with eleven ambulance vehicles, according to a message from the relief service.
The helpers are therefore helping the rescue workers with the evacuation of hospitals and nursing and old people's homes.
»It goes without saying that in this difficult situation we should immediately help across borders and show solidarity.
Our deepest sympathy goes out to all concerned, «said the Maltese regional manager Karl-Eugen Graf von Neipperg.
According to the Malteser relief service, the state of Rhineland-Palatinate asked for regional help in the form of 100 ambulance vehicles for the transfer of patients on Thursday afternoon.
SPD: "Bundle all efforts to save human lives"
00:03
: The SPD leadership relies on concentrated crisis management and rapid aid in the flood disaster.
"Now it is important to bundle all efforts to save human lives and prevent even greater damage," said SPD leader Norbert Walter-Borjans of the German press agency in Berlin.
Walter-Borjans and co-chairwoman Saskia Esken expressed the hope that "the missing will return to their families unharmed."
Walter-Borjans said that people who feared for their financial existence needed clarity quickly.
Clean-up work and reconstruction can only be achieved with great solidarity.
Federal Office supports flood regions with satellite images
00.01 a.m.:
The Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Aid (BBK) supports the regions in Germany affected by floods and storms, including with satellite images. "At the request of the states of Rhineland-Palatinate, Baden-Württemberg, Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia, the BBK triggered the Copernicus service for disaster and crisis management," said Vice President Thomas Herzog of the editorial network Germany (Friday). Copernicus is the European earth observation program.
“The first satellite images from the areas affected by the storm have been recorded this morning.
As soon as they are available, these images will be made available to those involved in crisis management, ”said Herzog.
In addition, cross-border situation reports are regularly created, which are made available to the federal states, aid organizations and federal authorities for their crisis management.
The BBK also takes care of the coordination of aid, for example helicopters to rescue people or tapping points for the delivery of drinking water.
After storms in western Germany, more than 50 people have died in the past few days.
North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate were particularly hard hit.
jok / AFP / dpa / Reuters
