Merkel visits flood zone as western Europe death toll tops 180
SCHULD: Chancellor Angela Merkel visited flood-ravaged areas in Germany yesterday to survey the damage and meet survivors, after days of extreme downpours in western Europe left at least 183 people dead and dozens missing.
Merkel travelled to the village of Schuld in Rhineland-Palatinate state, one of the two hardesthit regions in western Germany, where the swollen Ahr river swept away houses and left debris piled high in the streets.
At least 156 people have died since Wednesday in Germany’s worst flooding in living memory, police said.
In Rhineland-Palatinate state alone, police reported 110 dead and 670 injured.
At least 27 people have also lost their lives in neighbouring Belgium.
Rescue crews in both countries were sifting through rubble to find victims and survivors, often
in dangerous conditions.
The historic downpours also battered Switzerland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
As the waters began to recede
in Rhineland-Palatinate and neighbouring North-Rhine Westphalia, concern shifted south to Germany’s Upper Bavaria region, where heavy rains inundated basements and led rivers and creeks on Saturday to burst their banks.
One person died in Berchtesgadener Land, a spokesman for the Bavarian district said.
And in the eastern state of Saxony, authorities reported a “significant risk situation” in several villages near the Czech border.
In Austria, emergency workers in the Salzburg and Tyrol regions were on high alert for flooding. The historic town centre of Hallein, near the German frontier, was under water.
Merkel has called the floods a “tragedy” and pledged support from the federal government for Germany’s stricken municipalities.
Speaking alongside United States President Joe Biden at the White House on Thursday, Merkel said her “heart goes out to all of those who in this catastrophe lost their loved ones”.