The death toll from catastrophic floods in Europe topped 120 on Friday, most of them in Germany, where hundreds of people are still missing.
It is the largest natural disaster in the country since World War II and authorities fear the extent of the tragedy has not yet been fully revealed.
Neighboring Belgium is also paying a heavy price, with at least 20 dead and as many missing, according to the latest government report, which revised down the previous one. “These floods may be the most devastating our country has ever experienced,” said Prime Minister Alexander de Croo.
Torrential rains have also caused severe damage in the Netherlands, Luxembourg and even Switzerland. But West Germany was the worst hit by the floods, with at least 103 dead. Among them are 12 inmates of an institution for the disabled, who did not have time to leave when the building was flooded during the night.
As a battlefield
“We have been living here for over 20 years and we have never experienced anything like it, it ‘s like being at war,” said Hans-Dieter Franken, 65, a resident of Suld, a village in the Rhineland-Palatinate, which was almost flattened.
Many villages in the same area are deserted and destroyed.
The victims may increase: “As we pump water and empty basements, we find human corpses. “I can not say what the final tally will be,” said Roger Leventz, the interior minister of the Rhineland-Palatinate, one of two areas hit by the disaster, along with neighboring North Rhine-Westphalia.
Dozens of people are still missing in both states.
Near Cologne, in Erfstadt, a part of the village literally collapsed, after the landslide that occurred today. Stunning images from the area show a huge crater, filled with volumes of soil, mud and debris. Authorities estimate that many people have lost their lives in this community.
Only positive development: the rains stopped today and the water level in the rivers started to fall.
About a thousand soldiers mobilized to assist in the search and rescue operations, but also to remove the debris. Damage recovery will now begin: gas and telephone networks have become obsolete in many areas and hundreds of people have been left homeless.
Many houses collapsed in Arvailer. The city looks like it was hit by a tsunami. “At 11.30 pm there was only a little water. At 1 in the morning, everything was under water. Our apartment, our office, the neighbors’ houses, were all covered by water. Within 15 minutes. It happened very quickly, “said Agron Berisha.
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Losses of billions of euros
“It is an unprecedented disaster,” said Gert Landsberg, general manager of the German Association of Municipalities and Communities. “Judging by the losses, we are talking about billions of euros,” he said.
In Belgium, many people are missing and even 21,000 people have been left without electricity. The army has been mobilized in four of the country’s ten provinces and is involved in rescue and evacuation operations.
The situation may also worsen in Switzerland, where many lakes and rivers are in danger of overflowing.
In the south of the Netherlands, rivers of water flooded the roads, vehicles were swept away and thousands of residents fled their homes, but the material damage is smaller, compared to the tragic report of neighboring countries.
In the picturesque town of Falkenburg, residents are pumping water from houses and basements, while the army has undertaken to build a makeshift bridge to replace the one that collapsed due to the flood. About 50 miles north of Roermond, caravans swim in a lake, in a campsite.
The Dutch are “more common” in such situations, compared to their neighbors, commented Stan van der Lev, a 58-year-old resident of the area, but sometimes nothing can stop the power of nature. “We also had more time to prepare. “In Germany and Belgium, it happened so abruptly that they just did not have the time to do the slightest thing.”
