Swept Away -- A Cautionary Tale

"[Some parts of Western Europe have received up to two months of rainfall in the space of two days.] What made it worse is that the soils were already saturated by previous rainfall."

"[It was too soon to blame the floods and preceding heat wave on rising global temperatures but] Climate change is already increasing the frequency of extreme events. And many single events have been shown to be made worse by global warming."

Clare Nullis, spokesperson, World Meteorological Organization

"In the hour of need, our country stands together."

"It's important that we show solidarity for those from whom the flood has taken everything."

"Only if we decisively take up the fight against climate change will we be able to limit the extreme weather conditions we are now experiencing."

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier

"It's a very sad scene. Streets, bridges and some buildings are destroyed. There's garbage everywhere." "Parts of buildings are in the road, people are sitting and crying. It's so sad. People have lost their homes, their cars are in fields flooded."

"My city looks like a battle has taken place."  

Gregor Jericho, Rheinbach, North Rhine-Westphalia

As many as 1,300 people are still unaccounted for in the western German district of Ahrweiler   EPA

"The deaths and destruction across Europe as a result of flooding is a tragedy that should have been avoided."

"Forecasters issued alerts early in the week, and yet the warnings were not taken seriously enough and preparations were inadequate."

"The fact that other parts of the northern hemisphere are currently suffering record-breaking heatwaves and fires should serve as a reminder of just how much more dangerous our weather could become in an ever-warmer world."  

Hannah Cloke, Professor of Hydrology, University of Reading, U.K. 

A man walks through the floods towards destroyed houses in Schuld near Bad Neuenahr, western Germany, on July 15, 2021. BERND LAUTER/AFP via Getty Images

Western Europe is in the throes of catastrophic flooding. The number of deaths and missing will certainly increase from its last count of 120 deaths and hundreds of people whose presence is unaccounted for. Swollen rivers, the result of record rainfall across the western part of the continent ravaged towns and villages. Cars were swept away and upended, houses destroyed, and people were left stranded on the roofs of their houses, awaiting rescue.

When the Ahr river flowing into the Rhine broke its banks in Rhineland Palatinate state, it took down a handful of houses in its mad rush. South of Bonn over a dozen people died as those in the region were urged to evacuate their homes. Torrential rain swept two men to their death in Belgium, while a 15-year-old girl swept away by an overflowing river is now among the missing. Clearly, too many towns and villages are located in flood planes.

Authorities have deployed hundreds of soldiers, with 2,500 relief workers helping police in their desperate efforts at rescuing people in Germany. Tanks were brought out to clear roadways of landslides and fallen trees. Helicopters winched stranded people from their rooftops to safety, Hunreds of thousands of homes were without power. 

 

Two men try to remove goods from next to the debris of houses destroyed by the floods in Schuld. BERND LAUTER/AFP via Getty Images

 

Wrecked vehicles in Ahrweiler wee propped against the town's stone gate. Local homeowners swept mud from their homes with snow shovels and brooms. With flood waters receding shops were trying to assess the damage they had received as efforts at clean-up were underway. Flooding in 2002 killed 21 people in eastern Germany along with over 100 across central Europe. This year's flooding is that much worse. 

Houses collapsed  in Belgium when the river Vesdre flooded the eastern town of Pepinster with over a thousand homes evacuated. In the Netherlands, thousands were urged to leave their homes to escape floods when rivers were on the brink of bursting their banks. Two firefighters died in North Rhine-Westphalia. Houses were crushed to piles of debris and broken beams in the town of Schuld; roads blocked by wreckage and fallen trees.

A man rows a boat down a residential street after flooding in Angleur, Province of Liege, Belgium, Friday July 16, 2021. (AP Photo/Valentin Bianchi)