Europe floods: At least 120 dead and hundreds unaccounted for

A severe weather event is happening across Western Europe with Germany seemingly taking the brunt , heavy rains have led to flooding that has killed over 100 people in Germany with hundreds remaining unaccounted for , 20 people have died in Belgium but that number could rise.

More than 150 litres of rainwater per square metre fell over 24 hours in parts of western Germany, causing rivers to swell and burst their banks.

Among the worst-hit areas is Ahrweiler county, south of Cologne, where several homes collapsed in the village of Schuld and authorities say around 1,300 people are unaccounted for.

Belgium has declared a national day of mourning for next week as the number of deaths there rose to 20, with another 20 people missing.

Entire communities lie in ruins after rivers overflowed and swept through towns and villages - washing away people's homes and cars, flooding basements and causing widespread devastation - following days of torrential rain.

Thousands of people remain homeless after their houses were destroyed or deemed at-risk by officials.

The search for survivors continues and to help those trapped in houses at risk of collapse.
news.sky.com...

Thoughts go out to our European cousins.

Prayers are going out, there's been talk about 1k+ missed people besides the dead they constant pull out of cars, rubble and flooded cellars.

Some can not even leave the house as it's beginning to breaking apart. Heavy stone built houses. People are sitting on rooftops waiting for helicopters to rescue them.

Many drowned in their cellars. My heart is with everyone that is in the unknown about family and loved ones safety. THW (technical catastrophe assistance) in my town convoyed out last night. The local sports club is collecting clothes, toys, pillows, blankets, everything they can get and sent it up there.

Even my daughter that I tried to shield from the news has come forward to give away toys after I robbed some spare blankets and pillows from my storage, it's really getting very close to the hearts here, the whole day has been a dark one for Germany.

Add: I know other countries like Netherlands and UK are hit too, I did not want to make this about Germany but I am out of the information loop for the other countries, the radio is saturated with local news but here it's not as bad yet.

a reply to: ThatDamnDuckAgain

Add: I know other countries like Netherlands and UK are hit too, I did not want to make this about Germany but I am out of the information loop for the other countries, the radio is saturated with local news but here it's not as bad yet.

By the look of things this is largely about Germany so no worries there , the UK is expecting a heatwave this weekend but we haven't been affected by the rains as you guys have , hopefully the worst of it is over and the missing can be reunited with their families.

a reply to: gortex

Was participating in the London thread so I know that the UK has had it's fair share of trouble with rainfall. Do we have members from the Netherlands? Mindcrime bailed or was banned, I don't know anyone else from there.

I didn't lookup any pictures until a few hours ago, just heard descriptions over radio. I don't watch TV very often. t's devastation, I've never seen anything like it before. There's a picture that looks like toy cars in a sandbox but then you realize it's real cars, crushed under or besides storm sewer pipes the size of trucks. 20m deep into the ground.

a reply to: gortex

, hopefully the worst of it is over and the missing can be reunited with their families.

Sadly, I think the ''worst'' has just begun. We are now moving into the thick of the problems we were warned about back in the 90s when climate change struggled to get a word in edgewise into our public discourse. Not only have needed changes in human behavior failed to materialize we are also now seeing an almost total lack of preparation for the cataclysms unfolding around us.

As the prophet Steve Miller once sang of the USA,,, ''somebody gimme a cheeseburger''

a reply to: TerryMcGuire
I don't know where you live but the greenhouse effect was thoroughly explained in both elementary an higher stages of the school system. That was late 90s for me, it hardly struggled to get a word, it's rather some countries gave a # about it royally.

China still does.

a reply to: ThatDamnDuckAgain

Where I live, our river has not even come close to reaching it's bank in fiver years when in the past it commonly happened at least twice a winter. Where I live it is parched with smothering heat when it once was considered a place not to move to because of the constant rain. Where I live we now live with constant concern over wildfires that rage up and down our state.

a reply to: TerryMcGuire

That's sad to read, still doesn't reflect my experience, that's why I asked you where you live, obviously you don't have to answer (and won't).

I live at about an hour and a half from the town of Verviers. We were at the edge of the rain zone, away from the rivers and the farmland around here soaked up most of the water.

They had predicted heavy rain fall, but what we got, they call it a "water bomb". As I understand it, it's a rain zone that is caught between high and low pressure zones, so it stays put over the same area. They said this was an event that happens around once in 200 years and it happened so fast that no one had time to evacuate when the water came.

I think the worst is over now for Germany and Belgium, except for two dams. One was undergoing repairs and only has 2 out of 6 dam doors working so it's under a lot of pressure , the other at the border of Germany and Holland is slowly overflowing.

All this water is going downhill flowing into the Netherlands like a water wave. they are still evacuating city by city, everywhere the wave is passing by and in the areas where the dikes have weak spots. By the end of the weekend the highest water level will be at the point where the two biggest rivers come together.
I guess it's going to be the biggest stress test so far for their multi-million dike-system. Let"s hope they pass the test.

This truly feels apocalyptic... and not a damn thing you can do about it

To go further,
Huge areas have no electricity, no gas, cell phone, internet, drinking water... whole infrastructures are ruined. Houses collapsed by the water, in some parts half of the towns...
In Germany a mental care nursing home was flooded so fast that all the patients on the lower floor drowned...
rivers that are normally 50 meters wide are now 1.5km wide...
Lot's of elders saying that this is worse then war...

It's been on the tele none stop and still feels unreal
I imagine that this is what Katrina was like or that the aftermath is the same at least.

a reply to: KindraLabelle2

I'm 400km away from the heavy core, higher in elevation (700m above sea level) and we still have flooded gates and small rivers turning to lakes, water level alarms, some cellars flooded. I can not even begin to imagine how it's at your place.

Yes they say it happened very fast, some got caught in their sleep, many that drowned supposedly tried to save their belongings or secure the house.

Stay safe.

a reply to: ThatDamnDuckAgain

It's safe where I am, no mountains here.
I think that is why it got so bad in the affected areas, it are all town that are in valleys, so when the rivers rise, the water has no where to go and stays between the mountains. The more it moves to sea level, the more space it gets

a reply to: KindraLabelle2
Plus it has been a rainy week before but before it started the ground was very dry. The ground can not take in so much water and it seals up, collecting sediments clog it further more from flowing away to underground aquafiers. More water collects.... Plus the plant's (grass and fauna) soaked up a lot to evaporate for cooling after the hot week.

It's like watering a dried out plant pot, it will just collect until it hit's a deeper spot.

a reply to: ThatDamnDuckAgain

And won't? I live in rural Oregon.

a reply to: TerryMcGuire
You shouldn't project your own countries views on climate change on the whole world then, especially not from the time frame 90s-2000s.

There's no way to word it so it won't be offending, so here it comes:

Your country was known to be one of the most wasteful countries in the western world and second to China. Your own impression about the 90s ignoring climate change are therefor correct, just that in many other parts of the world, recycling, stepping back and at least trying not to over consume was already a widespread thought.

a reply to: ThatDamnDuckAgain

No offense sir. There have been some of us who have taken this seriously and recognized the road block to helping solve this that the US has been. That is why I added that last line about Steve Miller from his song ''LIving in the USA''. That song came out decades earlier and was a cry about the superficiality about the world around us, hence, ''Gimme a cheeseburger''

a reply to: TerryMcGuire
Ah! Thank you for explaining that cultural reference.

Again it wasn't meant to put all Americans in one basket but there's a core to every rumor they (the people) say and your first post came over a big ignorant about what's going on elsewhere in the world. Got it now.

Dam in danger of bursting






www.dailymail.co.uk...

Let's pray and hope it holds up. Local residents have been evacuated, the dam is done though, that will lead to other problems in the coming years.

Experts emphasize, although the media says different, this is NOT due to climate warming but like KindraLabelle already wrote, it happens when a weather zone is locked local in place and held there by other zones nearby.

From watching the weather daily I know that we had a lot of these local, locked weather patterns for at least two weeks now.