Last night - contrary to previous fears - remained almost dry in the flood areas in Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia. After some rainfall on Saturday afternoon, it hardly rained in the regions during the night, said a spokeswoman for the German Weather Service (DWD) on Sunday morning. In the northern Eifel, for example, an average of five to ten liters of rain fell per square meter on Saturday. The spokeswoman also emphasized that in the current situation, even small amounts of precipitation could become a problem, as drains are clogged and the sewer systems are damaged.
There were heavy thunderstorms at night in southern Germany, where it rained, especially south of the Danube, sometimes heavily.
And there could be a strong thunderstorm again on Sunday, said the DWD spokeswoman.
“The air is very humid and warm, so it can boil.” However, the prospects are normal for a summer's day, and there were initially no severe weather warnings.
In Stuttgart, the rains on Saturday evening led to flooding in the city center.
A spokesman for the police said the water could not drain because of a blocked gully.
As a result, the Schillerstrasse near the main train station was under water.
The road has been temporarily closed.
In several communities in the Heilbronn district, according to the police, trees buckled on Sunday night, cellars overflowed and streets were flooded.
In the Ludwigsburg district, several streets were flooded and manhole covers were lifted.
In addition, a car got stuck in a flooded street, the water was half a meter high.
The occupants climbed onto the roof of the car and were released by the fire brigade.
In Rhineland-Palatinate, people were offered an emergency shelter on Saturday for fear of new storms.
Those who wanted could be brought from the endangered areas to their accommodation in Leimersdorf by shuttle bus.
But the weather there remained "more relaxed than the models suggested," as the DWD spokeswoman said.
Heavy storms in Belgium
However, there were heavy storms again in Belgium on Saturday. Cars were washed away there and people were brought to safety. In the city of Dinant, the vehicles carried away by the water blocked a level crossing, as the Belga news agency reported, citing the railway company Infrabel. The rail traffic had already stopped because of the flood in mid-July. In the city of Namur in the province of the same name, houses have been evacuated due to the weather. The city is located around 100 kilometers west of Aachen. "It's a disaster," Belga quoted the fire brigade as saying. There are numerous calls, you don't know where your head is, they say.
Meanwhile, the willingness to help is not waning - in addition to donating money, many people also want to lend a hand in the affected areas. On Saturday there were so many that the police in Koblenz and the crisis team appealed to helpers not to make their way to the disaster area. All access roads are completely overloaded, it said.
After several donation campaigns for the flood victims in the past few days, there was also another charity broadcast on Saturday evening: “Germany helps - The Sat.1 donation gala” raised EUR 31,155,430 in donations. “We are all touched,” commented comedian Ralf Schmitz on the amount that he communicated to the presenter Daniel Boschmann and the audience at the end of the program. More than 50 celebrities were reportedly on the phone as collectors for donations, including Hella von Sinnen, Verona Pooth, Samuel Koch, Alex Peter, Matthias Opdenhövel and Mickie Krause.