Merkel sees ‘surreal’ wreckage as flood death toll tops 180
Finance minister pledges more than $354 million in emergency aid
Chancellor Angela Merkel said yesterday that she was horrified by the “surreal” devastation in the floodravaged region of Germany, as the toll in western Europe reached at least 184 people dead with dozens still missing.
Wearing hiking boots and offering pandemic-safe fist bumps to rescue workers, the veteran leader walked through the village of Schuld in Rhineland-Palatinate state, one of the two hardest-hit regions in western Germany. Merkel, who is retiring from politics after September’s elections, listened to the accounts of residents where the swollen Ahr river swept away houses and left debris piled high in the streets.
Chancellor shaken
“It is a surreal, eerie situation,” a visibly shaken Merkel said, as she pledged quick aid to rebuild. “It is shocking — I can almost say that the German language doesn’t have words for the destruction that’s been wreaked.”
At least 157 people have died since Wednesday in Germany’s worst flooding in living memory, police said. In Rhineland-Palatinate state alone, authorities reported 110 dead and 670 injured.
Belgium counts the dead
At least 27 people have lost their lives in neighbouring Belgium. Rescue crews were sifting through rubble to find victims and survivors, often in dangerous conditions. Police deployed speedboats and divers to recover bodies swept away in the torrents. Historic heavy rainfall also battered Switzerland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
As the waters began to recede in Rhineland-Palatinate and neighbouring North-Rhine Westphalia (NRW), concern shifted south to Germany’s Upper Bavaria region, where incessant rains inundated basements and led rivers and creeks late Saturday to burst their banks. One person died in Berchtesgadener Land, a spokeswoman for the Bavarian district said. In the eastern state of Saxony, authorities reported a “significant risk situation” in several villages.
Meanwhile, German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz pledged more than $354 million (AED 1.2 billion) in emergency aid for people who lost homes and businesses.