Death toll from devastating floods in Europe at least 126
The death toll from devastating floods across parts of Western Europe soared to at least 126 on Friday — most in western Germany, where emergency responders were frantically searching for about 1,300 people, officials said.
Authorities said efforts to contact the missing people could be hampered by disrupted roads and phone connections.
In the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, 63 people died, including at least 12 residents of an assisted-living facility for the disabled in Sinzig, where a sudden rush of water from the nearby Ahr River inundated the building.
In neighboring North Rhine-Westphalia state, officials said 43 people lost their lives but warned that the numbers could increase.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said he was “stunned” by the devastation and pledged support to the families of those killed and to municipalities facing widespread damage.
“In the hour of need, our country stands together,” Steinmeier said in a statement. “It’s important that we show solidarity for those from whom the flood has taken everything.”
Meanwhile, a harrowing rescue effort unfolded in the town of Erftstadt, southwest of Cologne, where people were trapped when the ground gave way and their houses collapsed.
“We managed to get 50 people out of their houses last night,” county administrator Frank Rock told German broadcaster n-tv. “One has to assume that under the circumstances some people didn’t manage to escape.”
After Germany, where the death toll stood at 106, Belgium was the hardest hit by the floods.
Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden told the VRT network that the country had confirmed the deaths of 20 people, with 20 others still missing. More than 21,000 people were left without power in one region, Agence France-Presse reported.
Water levels on the Meuse Rriver that runs from Belgium into the Netherlands remained alarmingly high and several dikes were at risk of collapsing, Verlinden said.
Authorities in the southern Dutch town of Venlo evacuated 200 hospital patients due to the threat of flooding from the river.
Luxembourg and the Netherlands also were battered by heavy rains, inundating many areas and forcing thousands to be evacuated in the Dutch city of Maastricht.
But Germany was the hardest hit, with residents caught completely off guard by the deluge, called the “flood of death” by the country’s top-selling daily Bild.
“I fear that we will only see the full extent of the disaster in the coming days,” Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday from Washington, where she met with President Biden.
My empathy and my heart go out to all of those who in this catastrophe lost their loved ones, or who are still worrying about the fate of people still missing,” Merkel said.
Streets and houses were submerged by water in some areas of Germany, while vehicles were left overturned after floodwaters passed. Some districts were completely cut off from the outside world.
In Ahrweiler, several homes collapsed completely, drawing comparisons to the aftermath of a tsunami. At least 24 people were confirmed dead in Euskirchen, one of the worst-hit towns just to the north.
In the devastated Ahrweiler district of Rhineland-Palatinate, some 1,300 people remained unaccounted for, although local authorities told Bild the high number was likely due to damaged phone networks.
Regional Interior Minister Roger Lewentz said up to 60 people were believed to be missing, “and when you haven’t heard from people for such a long time … you have to fear the worst.”
“The number of victims will likely keep rising in the coming days,” Lewentz added.
Several people also were killed and went missing after a landslide in Erftstadt-Blessem in North Rhine-Westphalia, officials said.
“Houses were largely swept away by the water and some collapsed,” the local authority in Cologne said in a tweet, while a spokeswoman for the local government told AFP there were confirmed deaths.
North Rhine-Westphalia Gov. Armin Laschet — whose handling of the disaster is widely seen as a test for his ambitions to succeed Merkel as chancellor in the Sept. 26 election — has called an emergency cabinet meeting Friday.
Malu Dreyer, the governor of neighboring Rhineland-Palatinate state, said the disaster showed the need to speed up efforts to curb global warming.
“We’ve experienced droughts, heavy rain and flooding events several years in a row, including in our state,” she told the Funke media group. “Climate change isn’t abstract anymore. We are experiencing it up close and painfully.”
She accused Laschet and Merkel’s center-right Union bloc of hindering efforts to achieve greater greenhouse gas reductions in Germany.
With Post wires
