Several people died after heavy storms and continuous rain in western Germany.

On Thursday night in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate, brooks that burst their banks turned into raging rivers and devastated numerous villages.

Power outages paralyzed a number of regions.

You can read all current developments on floods and storms in the live blog here.

According to the electricity distribution network operator Westnetz, at least 200,000 people are without electricity in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate.

For safety reasons, transformer stations would be switched off if water penetrated, the company said.

Because of the flooded streets, some of the facilities could not be reached, explained a spokeswoman.

“We are working with all available resources.” The company supplies large parts of North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate with electricity, especially rural areas such as the Eifel.

In addition, dams threatened to overflow.

The water levels also rose on the Rhine, Ruhr, Moselle and smaller rivers.

Fire brigades, technical relief organizations (THW) and other rescue workers were in constant use.

The amount of property damage could not yet be foreseen.

Malu Dreyer: "Really devastating"

At the beginning of the plenary session in Mainz, the Rhineland-Palatinate Prime Minister Malu Dreyer clearly stated which catastrophe has just occurred: “There are dead, there are missing, there are many who are still in danger.” She described the situation as “real devastating. ”Whole places were flooded, houses simply swam away. Police helicopters are on the way to rescue people from rooftops. The Bundeswehr is also helping with around 200 soldiers. There are a lot of missing people, says Dreyer. It is unclear whether they could have saved themselves. Reaching them is difficult because the cellular network has partially failed.

Eifel-Ort Schuld, almost 70 people are missing, six houses have collapsed, many are unstable. People fled to their rooftops in need. The village with around 700 inhabitants - near the state border with North Rhine-Westphalia - lies in a loop on the Ahr, which is usually a small river. Now the Ahr has turned into a raging body of water. In the Erdorf district of Bitburg, too, the force of the water can be seen, brown masses of mud literally tumble through the streets. On aerial photos of Schuld you can see how parts of the place almost sink into the floods with rubble and mud. Pictures of guilt, where around 660 people live, bear witness to the devastation.

The municipality of Kordel in the Trier-Saarburg district with around 2000 inhabitants cannot be reached on Thursday, the flood cut off all access routes. One tries now to reach the residents with the help of the Bundeswehr with watercraft, says a district spokesman. There are similar rescue operations on the Sauer River, a few kilometers away.