Sylvie Claire / July 24, 2021
One hundred and eighty people died in the floods that hit western Germany on July 14 and 15, and some 150 are still missing or unreachable, according to a new toll released Friday by the authorities.
The previous death toll on Thursday was 177. The Rhineland-Palatinate region, the most affected by the violent storms that devastated several municipalities, has 132 dead and 766 injured, according to the police in Koblenz. In this region, 149 people are still being sought, according to the same source. However, we do not assume that the final number of deaths will increase by as much, said at a press conference the Minister of the Interior of the Land Roger Lewentz, estimating that are on the list of wanted people on vacation. The police are searching with the help of helicopters and about thirty sniffer dogs, especially in places where masses of wood washed away by the rains have accumulated. I have no way of knowing if we will be able to find all the dead. We will not stop, Lewentz said. In the neighboring region of North Rhine-Westphalia, 47 people died in the floods. The Cologne police said they were looking for two missing or unreachable. One person also died in Bavaria, in the south of the country, affected by the floods.
The German meteorological services have called for vigilance because of new rains announced for this weekend in the west of the country. With Belgium counting 36 deaths, the total number of victims of this exceptional weather episode in Europe is 216. Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Austria a few days later were also affected by flooding, although no casualties were recorded in these countries.