The situation in flood areas in Germany is slowly easing. But electricity and water remain scarce. The extent of the destruction is great. The news ticker.
- For the beginning of the week, the German Weather Service does not expect any more severe storms *.
- The clean-up work can begin in many places: More fatalities were found in the rubble.
- Many residents are overwhelmed by the helpfulness of the suburbs. (See update at 4.10 p.m.)
- This news ticker is continuously updated.
Update from July 19, 5:26 p.m.: Angela Merkel (CDU) gets a picture of the flood disaster in North Rhine-Westphalia on Tuesday. Together with the Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia Armin Laschet, the Chancellor will come to Bad Münstereifel at noon, as the State Chancellery announced on Monday. On site in the Euskirchen district, Merkel wants to get an idea of the situation and speak to representatives of aid organizations and helpers. Meetings with affected citizens are also on the program.
Update from July 19, 4:55 p.m.: The German Red Cross calls for blood donations after the flood disaster. The blood donation service West sees the sufficient supply of blood products at risk. In the rural areas of North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate, which tend to be blood donation-friendly, the infrastructure is so damaged that in many places no more blood donation appointments can be made for the foreseeable future, the major supplier of blood preparations announced on Monday, according to dpa. Since there has been a serious shortage for a long time, they are now sounding the alarm and urgently calling on the population to donate blood.
Floods in Germany: willingness to donate is high
Update from July 19, 4.10 p.m.: In the affected areas in Bavaria, Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate, the clean-up work is in full swing. The willingness to help is great. According to Deutschlandfunk, the alliance “Aktion Deutschland Hilft” declared on Monday that no further donations in kind could be accepted at the moment. The viewing, sorting and also the logistics exceeded the capacities of the associations on site. Instead, the German Central Institute for Social Issues is calling for monetary donations.
While many residents are clearing the rubble from the areas, memories of the horrors of the storm also come back. In an interview with the news agency afp , a person affected from the Ahrweiler district tells of the events. It happened very quickly. “The water was 1.60 m high. There were a few bodies in the water that swam through the street. ”The affected areas are still being searched for missing people.
Update from July 19, 3:42 p.m .: Will there be more storms? Currently, the warning card of the German Weather Service is still mostly green. The beginning of the week should stay dry. Disaster areas all over Germany are initially spared from storms. However, a new low is expected around Saturday. There can be “increasing thunderstorms from the west up to severe weather”. Heavy rain * and hail can occur locally. A meteorologist gives more precise assessments.
Update from July 19, 3:25 p.m.: The debate about disaster control continues to heat up in Germany. Buzzwords like “warnings” and hashtags like #monumental system failure or #Laschet knew it are trending on Twitter. More and more allegations are being made. There is little time to deal with it on site. “At the moment we are taking care of what happened,” said the crisis team in the particularly hard hit Ahrweiler district.
The Vulkaneifel district and the Bitburg-Prüm district in the Eifel region initially see no defects in the alarm chain. An analysis was still pending in the Trier-Saarburg district. The state government pointed out on Sunday the rapid pace at which the masses of water carried everything away.
Update from July 19, 2:21 p.m.: Entire company premises are flooded. Machines stand still. The flood disaster in Germany also hit many companies hard. According to the company, a plant of the automotive supplier ZF in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler (RLP) that was devastated by floods has been idle since the flood, as has production facilities for the copper recycler Aurubis in Stolberg near Aachen. The energy supply group RWE had to interrupt production in the Indes open-cast lignite mine and reduce production in its Weisweiler power plant. The outlet center Bad Münstereifel reports on its homepage: “Closed for an indefinite period.”
First report from July 19, 2021 : Munich – At the start of the week, the German Weather Service (DWD) predicts “rarely a few drops” for the northern half of Germany. Even in the southern half it is often friendly. According to the forecast, individual thunderstorms in the afternoon are only possible south of the Danube, but locally also with heavy rain. In most areas, however, the danger of flooding seems to have been averted for the time being.
In the Berchtesgadener Land in southeast Bavaria, which was particularly badly hit by storms, people could breathe a sigh of relief. “The night passed quietly,” said the fire department. The feared flood disaster did not materialize in Passau. Areas of the city were flooded. Fortunately, one is still far from catastrophic conditions, said a police spokesman in the morning. The fire brigade expects that the clean-up work can begin in the evening or on Tuesday at the latest.
After the floods in Germany: electricity and water remain scarce – emergency expected for months
The infrastructure is also slowly recovering in many federal states. The railway line from Dresden (Saxony) to Prague (Czech Republic) is at least single-tracked again after salvage work. And in the course of the week, shipping on the Rhine near Speyer (Rhineland-Palatinate) and Karlsruhe (Baden-Württemberg) is to be reopened.
The mobile network in the affected areas is still patchy, especially in Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia, and relatives are often unreachable. The largest German mobile operator Vodafone said on Monday, according to afp, that a sixth of the radio stations were still cut off from the network. Many locations are damaged or completely destroyed.
“It looks as if the infrastructure has been so badly damaged that in some places there may be no drinking water for weeks or even months”
In the case of electricity and water, the emergency situation in some areas is apparently even longer: “It looks as if the infrastructure has been so badly destroyed that in some places there may be no drinking water for weeks or even months,” said Cornelia Weigand , Mayor of the Rhineland-Palatinate community of Altenahr on Sunday evening at “Bild live”. It is therefore very important to be able to guarantee an emergency water supply “for months if necessary”. This also applies to an emergency power supply in some places. You could not foresee when it would be normal again in Altenahr, said Weigand.
After the floods in Germany: death rate rises – 117 dead in one district alone
More fatalities appear in the rubble left by the devastating floods in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate. In the Rhineland-Palatinate district of Ahrweiler * alone, the number of deaths has risen to 117. 749 people were injured, the Koblenz police announced on Monday.
Overall, the number of confirmed deaths due to the devastating flooding in Germany over the weekend rose to almost 160. It is the worst flood disaster in Germany in decades. Many houses, streets and bridges are in ruins. The fire brigade, emergency services and the Bundeswehr are in constant use. It is still not possible to give a complete all-clear in individual cities. Meanwhile, the political debate about civil protection is picking up speed. (vs) * Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA
