In one hospital, flood waters caused lifts to fail.Ī firefighter died when he lost his footing in flood waters and was swept away, authorities told WDR. One care home in Hagen had to be evacuated, while across the region firefighters were busy pumping water out of hundreds of cellars. Residents were also told to leave one district of the regional capital Düsseldorf.Ġ1:00 Germany floods: stranded residents rescued by helicopter from rooftops – video Soldiers had to be sent to clear some areas of the city. Parts of Hagen were described as being isolated by high waters and all but inaccessible. Hagen’s crisis team said water would reach levels seen not more than four times a century in coming hours and warned everyone who lived near the town’s rivers to move to higher ground immediately, public broadcaster WDR reported. The German weather service issued an extreme weather warning for parts of three western states, while Hagen, a city of 180,000, declared a state of emergency after the Volme River burst its banks. The weather system brought down 148 litres of rain per square metre within 48 hours to a part of Germany that usually receives 80 litres in the month. The army was deployed across North-Rhine Westphalia to help stranded residents, and rail, road and river transport has been disrupted in the country’s most populous state. “Something like this, with this intensity, is completely unusual in summer,” he said.Īccording to the energy network operator Westnetz, 200,000 people were affected by power outages in the two western states. Photograph: Sascha Steinbach/EPAīernd Mehlig, an environment official from North Rhine-Westphalia, told WDR the situation being experienced by the state was ordinarily only seen in winter. “My thoughts and sympathies are with the people who mourn for loved ones, worry about the missing and look after those carrying injuries.”ĭevastation in the Ahr River after heavy flooding in Schuld, Germany. “The destructive extent of the floods is shocking,” Baerbock said. “Therefore it has to do with climate change.”Īnnalena Baerbock, the German Greens’ co-leader and candidate for chancellor, returned from her holidays to attend the situation, but did not immediately make the connection between the floods and the climate crisis. “But the fact that they are becoming more common has to do with the Arctic and the air above it getting warmer and weakening the jet stream,” Kleber said. On national broadcaster ZDF, the news anchor Claus Kleber pointed out that low-pressure areas were nothing new in the region. “The events show with what force the consequences of climate change can affect us all, and how important it is for us to adjust to extreme weather events in the future.” “Climate change has arrived in Germany,” said the environment minister, Svenja Schulze. In Leverkusen, a hospital with 468 patients had to be evacuated overnight following a power failure, after the Dhünn River breached its banks.Īs Germans prepare to go to the polls in September to choose a successor to Merkel, the extreme weather could heighten awareness of global heating, a topic with which the Greens, running second to Merkel’s conservatives, have so far failed to dominate the agenda. In at least four separate incidents, in the cities of Cologne, Solingen and Unna, people died after being trapped by the floods in their cellars. In the neighbouring western state of North Rhine-Westphalia, at least 30 people died, including two firefighters who drowned during rescue missions. 01:45 'It went so fast': villagers describe destruction as flooding hits western Germany – video
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