Heavy flooding turned streams and streets into roaring torrents, sweeping away cars and forcing buildings to collapse in Germany and neighboring Belgium, killing more than 20 people and leaving scores more missing.
Storms in western Europe recently caused rivers and reservoirs to overflow their banks, causing flash floods as rain-soaked earth couldn't absorb any more water.
Authorities in the western German region of Euskirchen announced on Thursday that eight people had died as a result of the floods. The fact that phone and internet connections were down in portions of the county, which is southwest of Cologne, impeded rescue efforts.
Four persons were killed in Ahrweiler county, according to police in the western city of Koblenz. Several buildings in the village of Schuld in the Eifel, a volcanic region of undulating hills and small valleys southwest of Cologne, fell overnight, leaving up to 70 people missing.
Hundreds more were trapped on their roofs, waiting to be rescued. The rescue mission included the use of inflatable boats and helicopters, as well as the deployment of 200 German soldiers.
“There are people who are dead, missing, and many who are still in danger,” Malu Dreyer, the governor of Rhineland-Palatinate, told the regional assembly. “We've never seen anything like it. It's quite upsetting.”
The Vesdre river in Belgium burst its banks, sending masses of water churning through the streets of Pepinster, near Liege, where its devastating power brought down some structures.
The mayor, Philippe Godin, informed the RTBF network that several homes had collapsed. It was uncertain whether all of the residents had survived unscathed.
One guy was reported deceased in eastern Eupen, near the German border, after being washed away by a flood, according to the RTBF network. Another man has gone missing in eastern Belgium, where flood levels have risen to historic levels, turning several towns' centers into raging rivers.
Major roadways were flooded, and all transportation in the south and east of the country was halted, according to the train service.
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, promised to assist anyone affected.
“My sympathies are with the families of those who have lost their homes as a result of the tragic floods in Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands "she sent out a tweet “The EU stands ready to assist.”
After many settlements were cut off by floodwater and landslides that rendered roads unusable, the entire scope of the destruction across the region was still unknown. Cars floated along streets and houses partially collapsed in some locations, according to videos uploaded on social media.
Many of the corpses were recovered only after the floodwaters had receded. In Cologne, Kamen, and Wuppertal, where authorities warned that a dam would fail, four individuals died in different events after their basements were flooded.
Authorities in the Rhine-Sieg county south of Cologne have ordered the evacuation of many villages below the Steinbachtal reservoir, fearing that the dam would also fail.
A firefighter drowned in the western German town of Altena on Wednesday, while another collapsed during rescue attempts at a power station in Werdohl-Elverlingsen. Authorities reported one guy went missing in the eastern town of Joehstadt after vanishing while attempting to protect his property from rising waters.
In extensive portions of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populated state, rail connections have been interrupted. Later Thursday, Governor Armin Laschet, who is hoping to succeed Angela Merkel as German chancellor in this fall's election, was set to visit the flood-ravaged city of Hagen.
The German meteorological service DWD forecast that the rain will lessen on Thursday, however, localized storms could still occur.
Authorities in Valkenburg, near the German and Belgian borders, evacuated a care facility and a hospice overnight due to floods that turned the tourist town's main street into a river, according to Dutch media.
Late Wednesday, the Dutch government dispatched 70 militaries to Limburg, in the southern province of the Netherlands, to assist with activities such as transporting evacuees and stacking sandbags as rivers breach their banks.
Rising floodwaters threatened to inundate a portion of one of the Netherlands' busiest highways, and Dutch television showed a party of holidaymakers being rescued from a hotel window with the help of an earth mover.
This week, unusually heavy rains drenched a large stretch of northeast France, bringing down trees and prompting the closure of dozens of roads. According to local radio France Bleu, a train line to Luxembourg was delayed, and firefighters rescued hundreds of residents from homes along the Luxembourg-German border and in the Marne region.
According to the French national weather service, the equivalent of two months' worth of rain has poured in certain locations in the last one or two days. With the ground already saturated, the weather service predicted further rain on Thursday, issuing flood warnings for ten different areas.
Meanwhile, temperatures in parts of northern Europe are anticipated to reach 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) or higher on Thursday.
According to the Finnish meteorological service firm Foreca, the night between Wednesday and Thursday was the hottest in history, with temperatures reaching 24.2 degrees Celsius (75.6 degrees Fahrenheit).
Greta Thunberg, a climate activist, stated on Twitter that the recent harsh weather should not be considered "the new normal."
“We are in the early stages of a climate and ecological emergency, and catastrophic weather occurrences will only grow more common as time goes on,” says the report "on Twitter, she stated.
