Germany Flooded After Heavy Rainfall

Most of the victims were in Germany, however eleven have died in Belgium because of heavy rains

The German states of Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia were the worst hit, but European nation have been additionally affected by the heavy rains. Armin Laschet, the premier of North Rhine-Westphalia, warned of the acute weather on a visit to hard-hit area, "We are faced with such events over and over, which suggests that we want to hurry up climate protection measures... because global climate change isn't confined to at least one state," he mentioned. Consultants say that climate change is predicted to extend the frequency of maximum weather events, however linking any single event to heating is complicated.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, referred to the flooding a "catastrophe" and said she was "grieving people who have lost their lives, My thoughts are with you, and you'll trust that every one of the forces of our government - federal, regional and community - collectively can do everything underneath the foremost tough conditions to save lots of lives, alleviate dangers and to alleviate distress."

In Germany, police helicopters and army forces are deployed to affected areas to assist stranded residents. Dozens of individuals waited on rooftops to be rescued. faculties have been closed nearly the west of Germany, whereas transport links have been severely disrupted. Residents within the region told the AFP press association that they were terribly surprised by the disaster, "Nobody was expecting this - wherever did all this rain return from? It' crazy," Annemarie Mueller, a 65-year-old resident of Mayen, said. "It created such a clap and given how briskly it dropped we thought it might break the door down." native teacher Ortrud Meyer, 36, said she had "never seen something like this". "My relative-in-law is sort of 80, he' from Mayen, and he says he' ne'er intimate something like this," she said. In Belgium, dramatic footage of the floods showed cars being anxious on a street within the town of Verviers.