Death toll in Germany floods tops 143 as scramble to find survivors continues
- German rescuers said far more bodies were likely to be found in sodden cellars and collapsed homes
- The deluge also pummelled Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, leaving streets and homes submerged in muddy water
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With the death toll in Germany at 143, three days into the disaster, rescuers said far more bodies were likely to be found in sodden cellars and collapsed homes. Around 22,000 rescuers have been mobilised.
“We have to assume we will find further victims,” said Carolin Weitzel, mayor of Erftstadt, where a landslide was triggered by the floods.
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Aerial footage shows extent of deadly landslides in Germany
In Germany’s worst-hit states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate, residents who fled the deluge were gradually returning to their homes and scenes of desolation on Saturday.
“Within minutes, a wave was in the house,” baker Cornelia Schloesser said of the torrents that arrived in the town of Schuld, carrying her century-old family business with them.
“It’s all been a nightmare for 48 hours, we’re going round in circles here but we can’t do anything,” she said, surveying the heaps of twisted metal, broken glass and wood that have piled up at her former storefront.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is set to visit the hard-hit town of Schuld in Rhineland-Palatinate on Sunday.
In neighbouring Belgium, the death toll jumped to 27 with many people still missing.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Prime Minister Alexander de Croo visited the flood-damaged areas of Rochefort and Pepinster together on Saturday.
“Europe is with you,” von der Leyen tweeted afterwards. “We are with you in mourning and we will be with you in rebuilding.”
Belgium has declared Tuesday a day of official mourning.
Luxembourg and the Netherlands were also hammered by heavy rains, inundating many areas and forcing thousands to be evacuated in the city of Maastricht.
A burst dam in Germany’s Heinsberg district 65km southwest of Düsseldorf overnight prompted the emergency evacuation of more than 700 residents.
In some affected areas, firefighters, local officials and soldiers, some driving tanks, have begun the colossal work of clearing the piles of debris clogging the streets.
“The task is immense,” said Tim Kurzbach, mayor of Solingen, a city in the south of the Ruhr area.
The real scale of the disaster is only now becoming clear, with damaged buildings being assessed, some of which will have to be demolished, and efforts under way to restore gas, electricity and telephone services.
The disruption to communication networks has complicated efforts to assess the number still missing, and most roads in the submerged Ahr Valley are out of service.
More than 90 of the dead lived in its Ahrweiler district, including 12 residents of a home for the disabled who drowned in the rising waters.
Roger Lewentz, interior minister for Rhineland-Palatinate, told local media up to 60 people were believed to be missing. More than 600 were injured.
The government has said it is working to set up a special aid fund, with the cost of damage expected to reach several billion euros.
Her spokesman said on Friday she was in close contact with regional leaders about “a visit soon to the scene of the catastrophe”.
Armin Laschet from Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, the front runner to succeed the veteran chancellor, spoke of “a disaster of historic proportions”.
Houses collapse, scores dead and hundreds missing in Germany floods
“There will be affirmations in the coming days that it’s not an issue for the campaign but of course it is,” it said.
“People want to know how politicians will lead them through something like this.”
