ERFTSTADT / OSLO / NEW YORK (Dagbladet): The damage is enormous in the western part of Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. On Saturday night, 141 people were confirmed dead in Germany, and on Sunday, Chancellor Angela Merkel will visit the hardest-hit areas.
Many people are still missing after extreme rainfall triggered flooding on Thursday.
Dagbladet meets sales manager Michael Kautsch (44) in the flood-hit district of Liblar in the town of Erftstadt. He is exhausted and despairing.
– Not good, he answers questions about how he is doing.
RESCUE ACTION: Rescue crews with an inflatable boat are looking for survivors in Erfstadt, Germany. Photo: Marius Becker / dpa via AP
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– T-shirt
He tells of some unreal days.
– There was a lot of chaos. Many have lost their homes. We know that people have died. We have not slept much.
In recent days, he has slept a total of four hours, he states.
– I’ve tried to help people. Save objects from our houses. It is strange what has happened. It is difficult to put into words. The water level increased. We did not receive information. No one knew what was going to happen. Nobody expected this, says Kautsch to Dagbladet.
Two months of rain in two days
He tells of several neighbors who are frustrated and crying. Old people who have lived in the city all their lives have suddenly lost everything they own.
– I can not see people suffering, so I cry a little now and then. Many have lost everything, and we do not know who died, says Kautsch.
The interview is interrupted several times because emergency vehicles rush past with the sirens on.
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– Completely secluded
The roads became impassable when the flood hit
– The city was completely secluded. Many elderly people were still in the city and could not be evacuated. The hospital was flooded. Both hospitals and nursing homes had to be evacuated, he says.
He himself lives a little higher up in the city.
– I’m one of those people who can call me lucky. The lower part was completely flooded. Houses were demolished with water. People lost their lives,
Close to where Kautsch meets Dagbladet is one of the main roads to Cologne.
– One of the last
– Yesterday, cars were still driving on the road. The water came so fast that many did not manage to get away. Federal forces are on site and removing cars now. The area is closed and that’s probably because there are dead people there.
He also says that he was one of the last to leave the city on his own.
Slaughtering politicians after the disaster
– I sent the family away in the morning. But I did not leave. There were still a lot of old people there, so I stayed. The area was completely closed off from the outside world. Only special vehicles managed to get out and evacuate people, says Kautsch.
He says that it has rained a lot in recent days.
– The river rose gradually. Then a dam was partially destroyed and the water came at a rapid pace. People did not manage to react quickly enough. We know that some have died and some are missing. We do not know where they are, says the 44-year-old and adds:
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– There is still a lot of chaos.
Besides, the danger is not over. A dam still threatens to burst.
– If that happens, we do not know how high the water will rise. Some also believe that it can cause water to squeeze under buildings so that they collapse, says Kautsch.
Rescue crews from many parts of Germany have come to help.
– The most important thing now is that those who need help get it as soon as possible. Some have lost everything, says Kautsch.
State of emergency
While the danger is not over in the western part of Germany, a state of emergency was also declared late Saturday in the south of the state of Bavaria due to heavy rain and flooding.
– Never before seen such a disaster
Several landslides have been triggered, and the capacity of the fire crews in the area has been blown up, says a spokesman for the operations center in Traunstein on Saturday night, according to NTB.
The cities of Berchtesgaden and Bischofswiesen, located in the southeast of Bavaria near the border with Austria, are particularly hard hit. Water comes both from the mountains and from the flooded river Ache.
Some houses have already been evacuated. Residents are asked to evacuate and stay away from the streets, as there is a lot of water flowing through them.
– The emergency calls come all the time. The situation is confusing and it is raining power trains, says a spokesman for the police in Rosenheim, which is located about 100 kilometers west of the two cities.
The state of emergency means that the military can assist with emergency aid.
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