The Watchers by Teo Blašković on July 17, 2021
More than 150 people across Europe have been killed and more than 600 injured after record-breaking rains caused catastrophic flooding on July 14 and 15, 2021. German authorities said more than 1 000 people are still unaccounted for. The worst affected were Germany and Belgium, followed by France, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and the Netherlands.
In western Germany alone, the worst-affected region, more than 130 people have been killed after extremely heavy rains caused rivers to burst their banks, destroying roads, bridges, and homes. Numerous mudslides have contributed to the disaster which happened at an astonishing speed.
According to DW, more than 1 000 people are still missing and many more remain trapped in flooded buildings. Most of the unaccounted for are in the northern part of Rhineland-Palatinate. While it's unclear why there is such a high number of unaccounted people, it's possible this could be due to land and mobile network outages.
Many places in Germany's worst-affected state, North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), are still underwater, while others are assessing damage as floodwaters recede.
Leaking gas pipes and structural damage to buildings across the state have turned some sites into death traps and authorities have warned people not to go looking for missing relatives on their own but to leave it to rescue workers, DW reports.
Rhine-Westphalia minister said rescuers had carried out about 30 000 missions, airlifting people from flooded and destroyed homes and buildings.
More:
https://watchers.news/2021/07/17/germany-belgium-europe-flood-death-toll-july-2021/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFhTd1vZmCo&t=57shttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0qMkfycy_o&t=16s
