After the floods in North Rhine-Westphalia, the number of deaths is increasing, and many missing people give cause for even greater concern.
Armin Laschet provides live information about the current situation.
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Update from Friday, July 16, 2021, 11:57 a.m.:
The State Chancellery of
North
Rhine-Westphalia announced that the press conference of Prime Minister Laschet and Interior Minister Reul will be postponed to 12.30 p.m.
The reason for the delay is a statement by Federal President Frank-Walter-Steinmeier at 12 noon.
First report from Friday, July 16, 2021:
Düsseldorf - The flood disaster in western Germany * had already reached historic proportions by the end of the week. The floods in Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia have already claimed more than 90 deaths. The North Rhine-Westphalian Ministry of the Interior confirmed 43 fatalities from the floods by Friday morning. Hours of heavy rain had led to devastating floods in several regions.
Since numerous people are still missing, the rescue workers fear that the number of deaths could increase significantly.
The rescue and clean-up work is in full swing in all affected locations.
The district administrator of Euskirchen, Markus Ramers (SPD), said he expected more deaths to be discovered if the water had drained.
The rescue workers continue to search for missing people.
The Bundeswehr has now sent around 900 soldiers to the disaster areas in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate to provide support.
Storm disaster in North Rhine-Westphalia: The situation on Friday continues to be tense
The situation in North Rhine-Westphalia remains tense.
According to the Federal Office for Population and Disaster Protection (BBK) in Bonn, 23 cities and districts in North Rhine-Westphalia are affected by floods.
Dramatic reports came mainly from Erftstadt: In Erftstadt-Blessem a number of houses had collapsed in whole or in part, the Cologne district government announced on Friday morning (July 16, 2021).
The cause is massive and rapidly progressing underwashing of the houses.
Emergency calls keep coming from the houses.
At the moment, people could only be rescued from the water by boat.
In addition, a gas leak makes rescue work more difficult.
Several nursing homes would be evacuated.
The fire brigade was able to rescue three seriously injured people from the Wurm river in the Heinsberg district on Thursday evening, who threatened to drown there.
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Prime Minister Armin Laschet gets a picture of the flood situation in Stolberg near Aachen on Thursday (July 15th, 2021).
© State of North Rhine-Westphalia / dpa
After a storm disaster: Armin Laschet provides live information about the current situation in North Rhine-Westphalia
The state cabinet of North Rhine-Westphalia meets in the morning for a special meeting to discuss the catastrophic situation in the state.
Prime Minister Armin Laschet * and Interior Minister Herbert Reul (both CDU *) will inform about the storm situation in North Rhine-Westphalia in a subsequent press conference from around 12 noon.
We report live.
Today, 12 noon, live: Prime Minister @ArminLaschet and Interior Minister @hreul provide information on the current situation in North Rhine-Westphalia following the special cabinet meeting.
pic.twitter.com/aj07Yz2pZ6
- State Chancellery NRW (@landnrw) July 16, 2021
Armin Laschet visited the Ruhr area town of Hagen, which was particularly affected by flooding, on Thursday (July 15th, 2021) to get an idea of the local situation. In the evening he said on the ZDF program “Maybrit Illner” * that ways had to be found to get roads, bridges and other infrastructure going again very quickly. The country will help, but “a great national effort is also needed so that the worst things can be eliminated quickly”.
Meanwhile, criticism of the state government of North Rhine-Westphalia is already loud.
Dirk Jansen from the Federation for the Environment and Nature Conservation Germany (BUND) sees the Laschet government as complicit in the storm disaster.
Too little “near-natural areas” had been created to help absorb the water masses.
Instead, the potential floodplain areas were "concreted over" with commercial and residential areas.
(iwe / dpa)
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List of rubric lists: © State of North Rhine-Westphalia / dpa
