World News
More than 60 people have died and dozens were missing as heavy flooding in Germany and Belgium turned streams and streets into raging torrents that swept away cars and caused houses to collapse.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday during a visit to Washington that she is shocked at the scope of the flooding.
She pledged that everything would be done to find those still missing, adding: “’Heavy rain and flooding’ doesn’t capture what happened.”
German authorities said late that at least 58 people had likely died, an increase on the earlier toll of 45 dead.
The interior ministry in North Rhine-Westphalia state tallied four more bodies recovered, taking the region’s toll to “at least 30” while neighboring Rhineland-Palatinate said nine more deaths were likely on top of 19 already reported.
Separately, Belgian media reported eight deaths in that country.
Among the worst-hit German villages was Schuld, where several homes collapsed and dozens of people remained unaccounted for.
Rescue operations were hampered by blocked roads and phone and internet outages across the Eifel, a volcanic region of rolling hills and small valleys. Some villages were reduced to rubble as old brick and timber houses couldn’t withstand the sudden rush of water, often carrying trees and other debris as it gushed through narrow streets.
Karl-Heinz Grimm, who had come to help his parents in Schuld, said he had never seen the small Ahr River surge in such a deadly torrent.
“This night, it was like madness,” he said.
Dozens of people had to be rescued from the roofs of their houses with inflatable boats and helicopters. Hundreds of soldiers were deployed to assist in the rescue efforts.
In Belgium, the Vesdre River spilled over its banks and sent water churning through the streets of Pepinster, near Liege, where a rescue operation by firefighters went wrong when a small boat capsized and three elderly people disappeared.
“Unfortunately, they were quickly engulfed,” said Mayor Philippe Godin. “I fear they are dead.”
In Verviers, the prosecutor’s office said several bodies had been found but could not confirm local media reports that four people were killed there.
In Liege, a city of 200,000, the Meuse River overflowed its banks Thursday and the mayor asked people living nearby to move to higher ground.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen pledged to help, tweeting: “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.”
In the Netherlands, King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima visited the hard-hit Dutch town of Valkenburg on Thursday evening to support residents and emergency services. Flooding turned the main street into a torrent of brown water, inundating homes and businesses.
The Dutch government sent about 70 troops to the southern province of Limburg late Wednesday to help with evacuations and filling sandbags.
Thousands of people in neighborhoods of the city of Maastricht and other villages along the Maas River were ordered to evacuate amid threats of flooding, and centers were set up to house them. The Maas is the Dutch name for the Meuse River.
