Germany picks through rubble after deadly floods sweep western Europe

ERFSTADT, Germany: Rescue workers scrambled on Saturday to find survivors and victims of the devastation wreaked by the worst floods to hit western Europe in living memory, which have already left more than 150 people dead and dozens more missing.

Western Germany has suffered the most brutal impact of the deluge that also pummelled Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, leaving streets and homes submerged in muddy water and isolating entire communities.

With the death toll in Germany at 133 into the fourth day of the disaster, authorities said far more bodies were likely to be found in sodden cellars and collapsed homes. Some 19,000 rescuers have been mobilised.

“We have to assume we will find further victims,” said Carolin Weitzel, mayor of Erftstadt, where a landslide was triggered by the floods.

In Germany’s worst-hit states of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and Rhineland-Palatinate, residents who fled the deluge were gradually returning to their homes and scenes of desolation.

“We are mourning with all those who lost friends, acquaintances or family members,” President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on a visit to Erftstadt in NRW. “Their fates break our hearts.”

More than 90 of the victims lived in the Ahrweiler district of Rhineland-Palatinate, including 12 residents of a home for the disabled who drowned in the rising waters.

Ahrweiler native Gregor Degen said he had been working in his bakery when the floods came.

“I got a very brief warning but it was basically already much too late and there was no chance to protect yourself,” he said, showing a mark high on the wall where the deluge reached.

“We were nearly paralysed with fear.”

In neighbouring Belgium, the death toll jumped to 24 with many people still missing.

Prime Minister Alexander de Croo was heading for the scene of what he has called “unprecedented” flood damage in the Meuse River basin. He has declared Tuesday a day of official mourning.

Luxembourg and the Netherlands were also hammered by heavy rains, inundating many areas and forcing thousands to be evacuated in the city of Maastricht.

A burst dam in Germany’s Heinsberg district 65-km southwest of Duesseldorf overnight prompted the emergency evacuation of more than 700 residents.

In some affected areas, firefighters, local officials and soldiers, some driving tanks, have begun the colossal work of clearing the piles of debris clogging the streets.

“The task is immense,” said Tim Kurzbach, mayor of Solingen, a city in the south of the Ruhr area.

The real scale of the disaster is only now becoming clear, with damaged buildings being assessed, some of which will have to be demolished, and efforts under way to restore gas, electricity and telephone services.

The disruption to communication networks has complicated efforts to assess the number still missing, and most roads in the submerged Ahr Valley are out of service.

Roger Lewentz, interior minister for Rhineland-Palatinate, told local media up to 60 people were believed to be missing. More than 600 were injured.

The government has said it is working to set up a special aid fund, with the cost of damage expected to reach several billion euros (dollars).

Chancellor Angela Merkel vowed to provide “short and long-term support from the government” to stricken municipalities and promised to visit the region in the coming days.