Rescue workers yesterday searched flood-ravaged parts of Germany and Belgium for survivors after overflowing rivers and flash floods claimed at least 157 lives over the past week.
About 133 people have died in the flooding in western Germany, in the country’s worst natural disaster in more than a half-century. That included about 90 in the Ahrweiler district south of Cologne, police said.
Hundreds of people are still missing.
Photo: AP
About 700 residents were evacuated late on Friday after a dam broke in the town of Wassenberg near Cologne, authorities said.
“Water levels have been stabilizing since last night, one can say the situation is stable,” Wassenberg Mayor Marcel Maurer said. “It’s too early to give the all-clear, but we are cautiously optimistic.”
In Belgium, the death toll rose to 24, according to the national crisis center, which is coordinating the rescue effort.
“Unfortunately, we have to assume that this figure will continue to rise in the coming hours and days,” the center said in a statement.
About 20 people are still missing.
The floods, which have mostly hit the German states of Rhineland Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia and eastern Belgium, have cut off entire communities from power and communications.
In the southern Belgian provinces of Luxembourg and Namur, authorities rushed to supply drinking water to households without a clean supply.
Water levels slowly fell in the worst hit parts of Belgium, although the crisis center said the situation could worsen in the afternoon along the Demer River closer to Brussels, with about 10 houses under threat of destruction.
Belgian rail network operator Infrabel published plans of repairs to lines, some of which would be back in service only at the end of next month.
Emergency services in the Netherlands also remained on high alert as overflowing rivers threatened towns and villages throughout the southern province of Limburg.
Tens of thousands of residents in the region have been evacuated in the past two days, while soldiers, fire brigades and volunteers worked frantically throughout Friday night to reinforce dykes and prevent flooding.
The Dutch have so far escaped disaster on the scale of their neighbors and as of yesterday morning no casualties had been reported.
Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen were yesterday afternoon set to visit Pepinster, where houses were washed away.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and North Rhine-Westphalia Premier Armin Laschet were also scheduled to visit Erftstadt, one of the hardest hit towns.
Laschet is the ruling Christian Democratic Union’s candidate in September’s general election. The devastation of the floods could intensify the debate over climate change ahead of the vote.
Scientists have long said that climate change would lead to heavier downpours.
However, determining its role in these relentless downpours would take at least several weeks to research, scientists said on Friday.
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