Photos published on Friday by the Cologne District Office and taken by the Rhein-Erft district show that an entire section of a field collapsed. Rhein-Erft-Kreis / Hide the historical caption
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Photos published on Friday by the Cologne District Office and taken by the Rhein-Erft district show that an entire section of a field collapsed.
Rhein-Erft-Kreis / Storyful
The worst floods in Germany and parts of Belgium in decades have killed at least 120 people while search and rescue efforts continue for hundreds of missing people, officials said.
Late on Thursday, authorities said that around 1,300 people were still missing in Germany, but warned that road and telephone disruptions could be responsible for the high number.
Meanwhile, German officials were quick to declare that a warming climate is at least partially responsible for the catastrophic flooding.
Cars are covered in wreckage brought on by the flooding of a nearby river the night before in Hagen, Germany on Thursday. Martin Meissner / AP Hide caption
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Cars are covered in wreckage brought on by the flooding of a nearby river the night before in Hagen, Germany on Thursday.
Martin Meissner / AP
“Climate change has arrived in Germany,” said Environment Minister Svenja Schulze on news material that shows the massive destruction and desperate families sitting on roofs waiting to be rescued.
Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier was shocked by the floods and said that measures must be taken to prevent such disasters in the future.
“Only if we resolutely take up the fight against climate change can we prevent us from being able to withstand extreme weather conditions such as those we experience,” Steinmeier said on Friday in Berlin.
Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is in Washington this week, said “heavy rain and floods do not fully capture what happened in Germany”.
People look at a destroyed level crossing and damage from the floods of the Volme on Thursday in Priorei near Hagen, West Germany. Sascha Schuermann / AFP via Getty Images hide the caption
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Sascha Schuermann / AFP via Getty Images
People look at a destroyed level crossing and damage from the floods of the Volme on Thursday in Priorei near Hagen, West Germany.
Sascha Schuermann / AFP via Getty Images
“We don’t know the death toll yet, but it will be high. Some died in their basements, some as firefighters trying to get others to safety,” she said.
Merkel, on her last visit to the United States as Chancellor ahead of a September 26 election to replace her, met with President Biden in the White House on Thursday. Among other things, climate change was on their agenda.
This meeting took place as regional governments in West Germany battled rain-induced flooding to save hundreds of people cut off from the raging water.
Nine residents of a facility for assisted living for people with disabilities are among around 60 dead in Rhineland-Palatinate. There and in North Rhine-Westphalia, where the city of Cologne is located, the situation is still chaotic, the electricity and mobile networks have failed.
Destroyed houses near the Ahr can be seen on Thursday in Schuld. Michael Probst / AP Hide caption
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Michael Probst / AP
Destroyed houses near the Ahr can be seen on Thursday in Schuld.
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A destroyed bridge spans the Ahr in Schuld, Germany, in a photo taken Thursday after the Ahr overflowed its banks in heavy rains. Michael Probst / AP Hide caption
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Michael Probst / AP
A destroyed bridge spans the Ahr in Schuld, Germany, in a photo taken Thursday after the Ahr overflowed its banks in heavy rains.
Michael Probst / AP
South of Cologne, police officer Patrick Reichelt told ARD that rescuers could hardly save children from school because of the force of the flood.
“The current of the water flowing past the elementary school is too strong for our motor boats,” said the official. “We just managed to get the kids out, but that was the last trip we will do today.”
A woman tries to move on a flooded street after heavy rainfall on Thursday in Liege, Belgium. Bruno Fahy / Belga / AFP via Getty Images Hide caption
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A woman tries to move on a flooded street after heavy rainfall on Thursday in Liege, Belgium.
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Cars piled up at a waterfront roundabout in the Belgian town of Verviers on Thursday after heavy rains and flooding hit Western Europe. François Walschaerts / AFP via Getty Images Hide caption
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Cars piled up at a waterfront roundabout in the Belgian town of Verviers on Thursday after heavy rains and flooding hit Western Europe.
François Walschaerts / AFP via Getty Images
The Governor of North Rhine-Westphalia, Armin Laschet, who wants to replace Merkel as Chancellor, convened an emergency cabinet meeting on Friday. His handling of the flood crisis is considered a test of his leadership skills.
According to the authorities, several people died in the city of Erftstadt after their houses collapsed through a massive sinkhole.
“We managed to get 50 people out of their homes last night,” said Frank Rock, the head of the district administration, the broadcaster n-tv. “We know of 15 people who still need to be rescued.”
“You have to assume that given the circumstances, some people did not manage to escape,” he said.
Two men tried on Thursday in West German Schuld near Bad Neuenahr next to the rubble of the houses destroyed by the flood to secure goods. Bernd Lauter / AFP via Getty Images hide the caption
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Bernd Lauter / AFP via Getty Images
Two men tried on Thursday in West German Schuld near Bad Neuenahr next to the rubble of the houses destroyed by the flood to secure goods.
Bernd Lauter / AFP via Getty Images
On Thursday, an entire district of the old town of Trier was evacuated, including a hospital and its patients, some of whom have just been operated on.
The worst damage occurred in the Ahrweiler wine region, where entire villages were cut off from flood currents. Houses collapsed in the city of Schuld and dozens of people went missing or missing.
People use rubber dinghies in floods after the Meuse overflowed its banks in heavy flooding on Thursday in Liège, Belgium. Valentin Bianchi / AP Hide the caption
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People use rubber dinghies in floods after the Meuse overflowed its banks in heavy flooding on Thursday in Liège, Belgium.
Valentin Bianchi / AP
In Belgium, the death toll rose to 12, with five people still missing, local authorities and media reports quoted by The Associated Press said early Friday.
In debt at Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler are houses in a flooded area on Thursday. Bernd Lauter / AFP via Getty Images hide the caption
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In debt at Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler are houses in a flooded area on Thursday.
Bernd Lauter / AFP via Getty Images
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