On Friday, the devastating Europe floods soared at least 126 people to death. Most of them were in Western Germany.
In some of the areas, houses and streets were submerged in water, while the cares were overturned on soaked streets after flood waters passed. Some of the districts were completely cut off from the outside world. Local residents said that everything was under water within minutes.
The worst thing is that the floodwaters continued to rise overnight in North Rhine-Westphalia. Adding to the devastation of the floods, several people were feared dead and hundreds were unaccounted for in a landslide in northern Germany. Euskirchen is one of the worst-affected towns just to the north.
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While the Belgium death toll jumped to 23 and more than 21,000 people were left without electricity in one region.
Luxembourg and the Netherlands were also hammered by heavy rains forcing thousands of people to evacuate the city of Maastricht.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said –
I fear that we will only see the full extent of the disaster in the coming days,
My empathy and my heart go out to all of those who in this catastrophe lost their loved ones, or who are still worrying about the fate of people still missing.
German authorities said that the national death toll has reached at least 103 and around 1,300 people were unaccounted for.
German Association of Towns and Municipalities Head Gerd Landsberg said –
the cost of the damage was likely to run into “billions of euros”,
In Belgium, the army has been sent to four of the country’s 10 provinces to help with rescue and evacuations. The swollen Meuse river which is nearby Liege city is looking very dangerous. Around 200,000 people reside in Liege city. Wallonia regional president Elio Di Rupo warned the people of the danger.
In Switzerland, lakes and rivers were also swelling after heavy overnight rainfall. Lake Lucerne had begun to flood the city centre after overnight heavy rainfall.
According to the World Meteorological Organization –
western Europe received up to two months’ worth of rainfall in two days on soil that was already near saturation,
Berlin President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said –
Germany would only be able to curb extreme weather situations if we engage in a determined fight against climate change.
Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said –
must prepare much better in future,
this extreme weather is a consequence of climate change.
This can be treated as one of the effects of climate change. Global efforts to fight climate change, underlining the link between global warming and extreme weather should speed up now at least.