Floodwaters recede, but deaths continue to rise
Fatalities in western Europe cross 180; Merkel calls damage ‘surreal, ghostly’
BERLIN: The death toll from the massive flooding across western Europe climbed above 180 on Sunday after rescue workers dug deeper into debris left by receding waters. Police put the toll from the hard-hit Ahrweiler area of western Germany’s Rhineland-Palatinate state at more than 110 and said they feared the number could still rise.
In North Rhine-Westphalia, which is Germany’s most populous state, 45 people were confirmed dead, including four firefighters. And Belgium has confirmed 27 casualties.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday surveyed what she called a “surreal, ghostly” scene in the devastated village of Schuld, which lies on a tight curve of the Ahr river in western Germany, pledging quick financial aid and a redoubled political focus on curbing the climate crisis.
Merkel said she came away from Schuld with “a real picture of... the surreal, ghostly situation”. “It is shocking, I would almost say that the German language barely has words for the devastation that has been wreaked,” she told reporters.
Although rain has stopped in the worst-affected areas of Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, storms and downpours have persisted in other parts of western and central Europe.
Top German leader seen laughing, later says sorry
The front-runner to succeed Merkel in Germany’s September election has apologised following news that he was seen openly laughing in the background while the country’s President Frank-Walter Steinmeier was delivering an address on the devastating floods in Germany.
Armin Laschet, the candidate of Merkel’s centre-right Union bloc to be Germany’s next leader, is also the governor of North Rhine-Westphalia state one of two badly hit by last week’s floods.