Merkel pledges to rebuild ‘devastated’ flood-hit areas
The storm disaster in the Rhineland-Palatinate district of Ahrweiler has so far claimed 110 lives
GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel said the government will work hand in hand with the regions of western Germany hit by the floods to rebuild devastated communities.
“We stand by your side, federal and state,” she said on Sunday.
She praised the rescue efforts and the solidarity she had seen during her visit, but cautioned that the problems in the area would not be fixed quickly.
Merkel said she had come to get a real picture of the surreal, “ghostly situation” on the ground. “The German language hardly knows any words for the devastation that has been wrought here,” she said.
Merkel promised more efforts to protect against the effects of climate change. “We see with what force nature can act,” she said.
“We will stand up to this force of nature - in the short term, but also in the medium and long term.” What is needed are policies “that take nature and the climate into account more than we have done in recent years.”
The chancellor had previously seen for herself the areas particularly affected by the floods. Around noon (1000 GMT), accompanied by Rhineland-Palatinate Premier Malu Dreyer, among others, she visited the Eifel community of Schuld, which had been devastated by the floods.
Dreyer assumes that it will be a “feat of strength for a long, long time” until the reconstruction in the areas affected by the flood disaster is completed.
“It will take a long time before people can say again I recognize my homeland,” she said.
The priority now, she said, was the search for those still missing.
“We will not rest until the people who are missing are found,” she promised.
Merkel also said that the rescue work had “absolute priority.”
The storm disaster in the Rhineland-Palatinate district of Ahrweiler has so far claimed 110 lives and injured 670 people. In addition, 6 fatalities have been registered in neighbouring North Rhine Westphalia, bringing the toll across the country to over 1 0.
The wider region has begun a huge clean-up operation to remove mud and debris strewn over the streets of once-picturesque towns and villages, and rebuild homes and infrastructure.
The Ahr tributary in Ahrweiler turned into a torrent after heavy rains, inundating whole communities.
The number of fatalities could rise further, police said.
In many of the surrounding areas power and phone lines were still not operational.
Hundreds of kilometres away in Germany’s Upper Bavaria, the district of Berchtesgadener Land on Saturday night declared a disaster situation due to flooding.
Two people died, District Administrator Bernhard ern explained at a press conference in Bad Reichenhall on Sunday morning, but one victim had died of natural causes, which could also be related to the storm, ern said.
Torrential rains had caused the river Ache in the district to burst its banks and pour down slopes on Saturday evening. The fire brigade and other relief workers were working non-stop on Sunday, with 890 relief workers deployed in the particularly affected villages.
The towns of Berchtesgaden, Bischofswiesen, Schoenau a moe ni gs see, Mark ts ch ellen berg and Rams au in the far south-east of Bavaria were particularly affected. The fire brigade and other emergency services had to respond to up to 00 incidents - also to save lives.
Around 13 people had to be brought out of their homes to safety because of the floods in Berchtesgadener Land.