Thread: More than 30 dead, dozens missing in heavy Europe floods

BERLIN (AP) — More than 30 people have died and dozens of people were missing Thursday in Germany and neighboring Belgium after heavy flooding turned streams and streets into raging torrents, sweeping away cars and causing buildings to collapse.


Storms across parts of western Europe in recent days caused rivers and reservoirs to burst their banks, resulting in several flash floods overnight as rain-soaked soil failed to absorb any more water.


Authorities in the western German region of Euskirchen said eight deaths had been reported there in connection with the floods. Rescue operations were hampered by the fact that phone and internet connections were down in parts of the county, which is southwest of Cologne.


Officials said 18 people had died in Ahrweiler county, south of Euskirchen. Up to 70 people were reported missing after several houses collapsed overnight in the village of Schuld in the Eifel, a volcanic region of rolling hills and small valleys southwest of Cologne.


Dozens more were trapped on the roofs of their houses awaiting rescue. Authorities used inflatable boats and helicopters, and the German army deployed 200 soldiers to assist in the rescue operation.


“There are people dead, there are people missing, there are many who are still in danger,” the governor of Rhineland-Palatinate state, Malu Dreyer, told the regional parliament. “We have never seen such a disaster. It’s really devastating.”


German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was distraught by the news of the floods. “My sympathy goes to the relatives and of the dead and missing,” she said during a trip to Washington.


Across the border in Belgium, the Vesdre river broke its banks and sent masses of water churning through the streets of Pepinster, close to Liege, its destructive power bringing down some buildings.


“Several homes have collapsed,” mayor Philippe Godin told RTBF network. It was unclear whether all inhabitants had been able to escape unhurt.


Several Belgian media reported that four people died in eastern Verviers. No independent confirmation was immediately available.


Major highways were inundated in the south and east of Belgium, and the railway service said all traffic was stopped.


EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen pledged to help those affected.


“My thoughts are with the families of the victims of the devastating floods in Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands and those who have lost their homes,” she tweeted. “The EU is ready to help.”


The full extent of the damage across the region was still unclear after many villages were cut off by floodwater and landslides that made roads impassable. Videos posted on social media showed cars floating down streets and houses partly collapsed in some places.


Many of the dead were only discovered after floodwaters began to recede again. Police said four people died in separate incidents after their basements were flooded in Cologne, Kamen and Wuppertal, where authorities warned that a dam threatened to burst.


Authorities in the Rhine-Sieg county south of Cologne ordered the evacuation of several villages below the Steinbachtal reservoir amid fears the dam there could also break.


Two firefighters died during rescue operations in North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state.


Governor Armin Laschet paid tribute to them and pledged swift help for those individuals and businesses affected by the floods.


“We don’t know the extent of the damage yet, but we won’t leave the communities, the people affected alone,” he said during a visit the flood-hit city of Hagen.


Laschet, a conservative who is running to succeed Angela Merkel as chancellor in this fall’s German election, said the unusually heavy storms and preceding heatwave could be linked to climate change.


Political opponents have criticized Laschet, the son of a miner, for supporting the region’s coal mining industry and hampering the expansion of wind power plants during his time in office.


German weather service DWD predicted the rainfall would ease Thursday, though there might still be localized storms and water levels on the Mosel and Rhine rivers would continue to rise in the coming hours.


Authorities in the southern Dutch town of Valkenburg, close to the German and Belgian borders, evacuated a care home and a hospice overnight amid flooding that turned the tourist town’s main street into a river, Dutch media reported.


The Dutch government sent some 70 troops to the southern province of Limburg late Wednesday to help with transporting evacuees and filling sandbags as rivers burst their banks.


A section of one of the Netherlands’ busiest highways was closed due to rising floodwaters threatening to inundate the road and Dutch media showed a group of holidaymakers being rescued from a hotel window with the help of an earth mover.


Unusually intense rains have also inundated a swath of northeast France this week, downing trees and forcing the closure of dozens of roads. A train route to Luxembourg was disrupted, and firefighters evacuated dozens of people from homes near the Luxembourg and German border and in the Marne region, according to local broadcaster France Bleu.


The equivalent of two months of rain has fallen on some areas in the last one or two days, according to the French national weather service. With the ground already saturated, the service forecast more downpours Thursday and issued flood warnings for 10 regions.


Meanwhile, high temperatures of 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) or higher were expected Thursday in parts of northern Europe.


The night between Wednesday and Thursday was the hottest in history, the Finnish weather service company Foreca said Thursday with the mercury reaching 24.2 Celsius degrees (75.6 degrees Fahrenheit).


Greta Thunberg, the climate activist, tweeted that the extreme weather of recent days should not be regarded as “the new normal.”


“We’re at the very beginning of a climate and ecological emergency, and extreme weather events will only become more and more frequent,” she wrote.



More than 30 dead, dozens missing in heavy Europe floods

Originally Posted by misskit

the extreme weather of recent days should not be regarded as “the new normal.”


“We’re at the very beginning of a climate and ecological emergency, and extreme weather events will only become more and more frequent,”

List of floods in Europe - Wikipedia

50,000-80,000 dead in 1287

25,000+ dead in 1362

2,000-10,000 dead in 1421

20,000+ dead in 1570

4 floods killing a total of between 50,000-70,000 happened between 1634 and 1717.

etc etc etc

And those were in times of far smaller populations.

^ Yeah, but people were a lot shorter back then.

Wasn't that funny.

imo

Fuck that shit, wait till 2030.

Moon's Wobbly Orbit and Rising Sea Levels Will Cause Record Flooding in the 2030s
|
Smart News

| Smithsonian Magazine

Originally Posted by Edmond

List of floods in Europe - Wikipedia

50,000-80,000 dead in 1287

25,000+ dead in 1362

2,000-10,000 dead in 1421

20,000+ dead in 1570

4 floods killing a total of between 50,000-70,000 happened between 1634 and 1717.

etc etc etc

Were they caused by heavy rain ?

100% possibly.

Originally Posted by Edmond

100% possibly.

Yes
Or possibly not

Not

Yes

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

Fuck that shit, wait till 2030.

Moon's Wobbly Orbit and Rising Sea Levels Will Cause Record Flooding in the 2030s
|
Smart News

| Smithsonian Magazine

But climate emergency sounds more scary/interesting than a wobbly lunar orbit.

Flash flood chaos in Europe: At least 68 dead across Germany and Belgium and scores more missing as buildings are destroyed and families left trapped on rooftops after heavy rain strikes the continent


Torrential downpours struck parts of Europe overnight, triggering flash flooding after days of heavy rain


45 people died in Germany alone with 70 missing across North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhine Palatinate states


Town of Schuld, south of Bonn, particularly hard-hit after six homes were swept away and others damaged


Eight people reported dead in Belgium while a 15-year-old girl is missing after floods in the country's east


Evacuations also underway in Netherlands, Switzerland and Luxembourg after rivers burst their banks

MORE/PICS Dozens dead and missing after torrential rain triggered flooding in Europe | Daily Mail Online

Rescuers rush to help as Europe’s flood toll surpasses 125

ERLIN (AP) — Emergency workers in western German and Belgium rushed Friday to rescue hundreds of people in danger or still unaccounted for as the death toll from devastating floods rose to more than 125 people.


Authorities in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate said 63 people had died there, including 12 residents of an assisted living facility for disabled people in the town of Sinzig who were surprised by a sudden rush of water from the nearby Ahr River. In neighboring North Rhine-Westphalia state officials put the death toll at 43, but warned that the figure could increase.


German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said he was “stunned” by the devastation caused by the flooding and pledged support to the families of those killed and to cities and towns facing significant damage.

MORE Rescuers rush to help as Europe'''s flood toll surpasses 125

Dreadful pictures:

German villagers hope for a miracle after warnings that a dam could burst and wipe them out as floods kill more than 120, cause billions of pounds of damage and create fatal 'tsunami' waves in Belgium - Scoopy Web