The problem, they said, was an amount of rain they had never seen before - falling so rapidly that it engorged even small streams and rivers not normally considered threats. Yet German officials said that their warning system, which includes a network of sensors that measure river levels in real time, had functioned as it was supposed to. Numerous areas, victims and officials said, were caught unprepared when normally placid brooks and streams turned into torrents that swept away cars, houses, bridges and everything else in their paths. Those stark numbers raised questions about lapses in Germany’s elaborate flood warning system. Michael Probst/Associated Pressĭays before roiling waters tore through western Germany, a European weather agency issued an “extreme” flood warning after detailed models showed storms that threatened to send rivers surging to levels that a German meteorologist said on Friday had not been seen in 500 or even 1,000 years.īy the end of the week, those predictions had proved devastatingly accurate, with at least 125 people dead and 1,300 unaccounted for, as helicopter rescue crews plucked marooned residents from villages inundated sometimes within minutes.
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The authorities in the Ahrweiler district of Rhineland-Palatinate said late Thursday that 1,300 people remained unaccounted for in their region, where the Ahr river swelled to an angry torrent late Wednesday, ripping through the towns and villages that hugged its banks. Relatives of those missing grappled with the fear of the unknown.
“We are still waiting for the final assessment, but these floods could have been the most disastrous that our country has ever known,” Alexander De Croo, Belgium’s prime minister said on Friday. The official death toll stands at 20 dead and 20 missing, the authorities said. In Belgium, the Meuse river overflowed its banks, flooding villages and the center of Liège, leaving thousands without power.
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The focus was on how to deal with a disaster that was growing by the hour, with thousands left homeless, in addition to the missing. Politicians of all stripes called for a truce in the German election campaign. Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed her shock and solidarity from Washington, where she was visiting the White House. Germans struggled even to grasp the scale of the calamity in their country. In the city of Schleitheim, Switzerland, where a river burst its banks, residents recorded videos of cars being washed through the streets in a swirling flood of muddy water and debris. The worst hit were thinly populated, rural areas. In Central Europe rescue efforts were hampered, with electricity and communications networks down, roads and bridges washed out, and drinking water scarce. Studies have found that they are now occurring more frequently, and scientists point to a simple reason: A warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture, which creates extreme rainfall. The problem, they said, was an amount of rain they had never seen before - falling so rapidly that it engorged even small streams and rivers not normally considered threats.Įxtreme downpours like the ones that occurred in Germany are among the most visible and damaging signs that the climate is changing as a result of warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions. German officials said Friday their warning system, which includes a network of sensors that measure river levels in real time, functioned as it was supposed to. The Extent of Flooding in the Hardest-Hit Areas of EuropeĪ preliminary analysis of satellite imagery shows wide areas of flooding along rivers in western Germany and neighboring countries.
At least 20 were reported dead in Belgium.Ī European weather agency had issued an “extreme” flood warning after detailed models showed storms that threatened to send rivers surging to levels that a German meteorologist said on Friday had not been seen in 500 or even 1,000 years. Frightened residents were being evacuated in the shovels of earth movers.īut nowhere was affected more than Germany, where hundreds were still unaccounted for and the death toll had reached 106 and was expected to rise as rescue workers combed through the debris. The scenes of devastation from the floods came from all around Western Europe as the death toll passed 125 on Friday, with another 1,300 people still missing. Rescue workers toiled on Friday night to reach people in remote German villages hit by some of the most severe flooding Europe had experienced in decades, as questions began to be raised about lapses in the country’s elaborate flood warning system.
Rhein-Erft-Kreis/Cologne District Government, via Associated Press The death toll has passed 100 and hundreds more people remain missing in Belgium and Germany after strong rains caused rivers to burst and wash away buildings.
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