Merkel, "shocked" by the devastation of the floods in Germany

“We have to hurry.

We must be faster in the fight against the climate crisis, ”said German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday after her visit to the Rhineland-Palatinate district where the floods have caused the greatest devastation and number of victims.

Merkel said she was "shocked" by the consequences of uncontrolled floods that have left at least 157 dead in western Germany (188 in total, including those from Belgium and Luxembourg) and described it as "surreal" and "ghostly". that he had seen during the morning.

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• Floods in Germany and Belgium already leave more than 120 dead

• Natural disasters cause three times as many displaced people as violence or conflict

Merkel also promised to urgently deliver the millions in direct aid that her Executive plans to approve at their next meeting on Wednesday. "The Government is with you," said the politician, visibly impacted by the visit, "both the federal and the state." Accompanied by the President of Rhineland-Palatinate, Malu Dreyer, the Chancellor visited the Ahrweiler district, where the authorities have reported the deaths of at least 110 people. The Cologne police have also warned that more bodies will probably appear once all the water that has flooded dozens of riverside towns is removed.

Specifically, Merkel could see directly the devastation that the flooding of the Ahr River has caused in the town of Schuld, a town of just 700 inhabitants where several houses collapsed on Wednesday night and rescue services had to rescue dozens of people from the rooftops. The town, located in an idyllic setting, has been unrecognizable. "It's very sad, there is nothing left," a resident, Gertrud Trimborn, lamented on Saturday. During the visit, Merkel has stopped to speak with some neighbors, who have told her what they have suffered and how their houses have been. The town, like many others in the area, continues without running water or electricity.

The chancellor recalled during her speech to the press that not all extreme phenomena can be attributed to climate change and pointed out that urban planning on the banks of rivers must be rethought.

"However, the sum of the extreme phenomena that we are experiencing makes it clear that we have to be more ambitious," he said.

Merkel assured that it is necessary to achieve climate neutrality "as soon as possible."

"I almost dare to say that the German language has no words to describe the destruction that has occurred here," said the chancellor.

"However, it also consoles me to see how people have approached the man, how they have helped each other, the solidarity that has come out of here," he added.

Efforts in the two affected German states, Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia, are now focused on locating the people who are still missing and starting reconstruction, which will take weeks, at best, or months. . Many infrastructures have been rendered useless, such as roads, bridges and railway lines. On the Ahr River alone, 20 of the 35 bridges are destroyed. The public railway company, Deutsche Bahn, reported that in a first evaluation it has found "massive damage" in 80 stations as well as in more than 600 kilometers of track in both States.

Heavy rains are still a cause for concern in various parts of Europe. The authorities' attention is now focused on parts of Austria and southern Germany, in the state of Bavaria. Austrian media report that emergency teams have had to rescue several people from their homes in the Salzburg region, where heavy rains have flooded the streets of a town. According to Reuters, firefighters in the Austrian capital Vienna said the amount of precipitation that fell in one hour on Saturday night exceeded all of that recorded in the preceding seven weeks. In Bavaria, at least one person has died from the floods.