The situation in the Rhein-Erft district (North Rhine-Westphalia) is still dramatic.
Other places in Erftstadt will be evacuated on Saturday.
Collapses are also possible.
Erftstadt - In
Erftstadt
(North Rhine-Westphalia *), which was
hard hit by the storm
, further
evacuations are in progress
: The
“Quartier am Stadtgarten” home
, which is on the outskirts of the
Erftstadt-Blessem
district
, will be evacuated on Saturday afternoon.
At around 2 p.m., a “major alarm” was triggered.
The retirement home threatens to collapse.
The building's statics are at risk from the water in the basement.
A total of 63 people have to be evacuated: seven of them lying down and 23 residents in wheelchairs.
The remaining residents are "more or less" able to walk.
Michael Kautsch is one of the residents.
He was already able to get to safety and was helping elderly people.
He says to us: “The
rescue workers
were initially
completely overwhelmed.
"But Kautsch understands that:" There has never been anything like this before. "
Storm Erftstadt Blessem: complete place cordoned off
In the district of
Blessem
, the police
cordoned off
the entire place
.
The risk of a complete underwash is too great.
It is said that further collapses cannot be ruled out.
The access roads to Blessem were cordoned off with red and white ribbons, and at another point police officers were standing on the roadway.
Bundeswehr tanks have been salvaging flooded cars on the B265 near Erftstadt in the Rhein-Erft district * since early Saturday morning.
It is feared that the people will die because it is not certain whether everyone was able to save themselves from their cars.
The situation throughout the area remains critical *.
Sebastian Peters
is a reporter for
Ippen Digital Zentralredaktion
and reports for the
IPPEN.MEDIA
offers
from the disaster area in
North
Rhine-Westphalia.
* 24RHEIN and 24hamburg.de are offers from IPPEN.MEDIA.