Deep "Bernd": Germany's worst catastrophe in the last 60 years

The severe storms in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate claim at least 43 deaths. This means that the number of victims is gradually approaching the 1997 Oder flood.

Cologne – The number of storm deaths is increasing. In North Rhine-Westphalia alone, the authorities are now reporting 24 victims of the rain floods. Euskirchen is hardest hit. In the city with around 60,000 inhabitants in the southwest of North Rhine-Westphalia, 15 deaths have already been counted as a result of the storm. There are also two storm victims in Cologne and three in Rheinbach, a city with around 30,000 inhabitants: inside the Rhein-Sieg district, 16 kilometers southwest of Bonn city center.

In Rhineland-Palatinate, the Ahrweiler district is hardest hit. 19 people were killed here as a result of the extreme rainfall. Overall, the officially reported number of storm victims in Germany has risen to 43. In many cities, evacuation is taking place, and rail traffic is severely restricted in both federal states.

With 43 deaths, the number of casualties is gradually approaching the 1997 flood of the Oder, which claimed 74 lives (other figures give the number 114), 20 of them in the Czech Republic and 54 in Poland. Most people in Germany since World War II died as a result of a natural disaster in 1962 when the Hamburg storm surge claimed 315 lives.

In the 1990s “Daria”, “Vivian” and “Wiebke” raged in Germany

There was a similar number of deaths from natural disasters in Europe after the Second World War, primarily from hurricanes. The hurricane “Daria” claimed eight lives in Germany in January 1990, 94 throughout Europe. Just one month later, “Vivian” swept across the country and left 15 storm victims in Germany, 64 across Europe fell victim to hurricane “Wiebke” in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

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One of the most violent storms was known as the Capella Hurricane in 1976. The hurricane got its name from the capsizing of the coaster of the same name built in 1961. All eleven crew members perished in the waters northwest of Borkum. The hurricane claimed a total of 82 lives, most of them in Germany. England was also badly affected, where 24 people lost their lives as a result of the storm.

Hurricane “Lothar” claimed 15 lives in Germany in 1999

15 human lives in Germany, 88 in France and a total of around 110 were claimed by the 1999 hurricane “Lothar”, which hit the Black Forest, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Austria one after the other from France at a forward speed of over 100 km / h.

After the turn of the millennium, it was initially the Danube flood and the hurricane “Jeanett”, which in 2020 also led to deaths in Germany. Seven people fell victim to the Danube flood in Germany, the hurricane “Jeanett” claimed 47 lives across Europe, 11 of them in Germany.

The worst flood in Europe since the turn of the millennium was the flood in the Alps in 2005. The flood claimed at least 30 lives, most of them in Bulgaria (23), in Germany nobody died.

42 dead by “Bernd” – previously only around 25 storm victims in Germany in the last 14 years

In 2007 hurricane “Kyrill” closed in, as a result of which 47 people died, 13 of them in Germany. In 2010 hurricane “Xynthia” claimed the lives of over 60 people across Europe, most of them in the western departments of France. Eight human lives in Germany fell victim to a flood in Central Europe in 2013, and at least 25 people died in total. In 2015, at least 14 people officially died in the wake of the “Christian” hurricane, six of them in Germany.

Storms across Europe also claimed human lives in 2016 as a result of the low pressure areas “Elvira”, “Friederike” and “Gisela”. At least eleven people died in Germany and at least 20 in Europe. The last severe storm with fatal consequences took place in February 2020 when hurricane “Sabine” was responsible for 14 deaths, two of them in Germany. (Mirko Schmid)

List of rubric lists: © Marius Becker / dpa