• Federal Republic One hundred dead in floods in Germany

  • Album The German catastrophe, in pictures

Almost a hundred dead, about

1,300 missing,

and millionaire material losses.

This is the latest balance of the heavy floods that occurred in the German federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate, both in the west of the country.

The footprint of the floods, the worst so far this century, is palpable in the pain of the people who have lost their families, their homes and their way of life.

And the nightmare is still far from over.

There is a lot of damaged infrastructure.

The situation on the ground is so complicated that civil protection services even have difficulty accessing areas where, according to satellite and drone images, the

body of water has wreaked havoc

.

Nature has been virulent.

In a few hours, more than 40 liters per square meter of rain fell, which caused the rivers to overflow, exceeded the absorption capacity of the drains, flooded homes and even tore them from the foundations causing their collapse.

The water level exceeded in some locations up to 1.60 meters high.

Access to the affected regions (meanwhile declared catastrophic zones) are cut off, including the regional highways and roads leading to them

.

Police controls have been established to prevent anyone from circulating through them.

Rail traffic is out of service,

there is no electricity and telephone connections are down

.

That explains the high number of disappeared, people who are tried in vain to locate by phone.

The hope that they will not respond because their devices have become useless is not lost.

"We are facing a very confusing situation, an unprecedented crisis that cannot be accurately assessed at this time, in terms of human or material losses,"

said Frank Rock, the spokesman for the Erftstadt City Council, a southern city of Cologne.

Although the situation is tending to stabilize, in many regions it remains critical.

"The danger has not disappeared and this makes rescue work difficult,"

says a spokesman for the Solingen fire brigade.

"We are focusing on the search for the missing, on recovering the fatalities and trying to save dams and houses. We are taking people out using revolving ladders, boats and buoys," he explains.

Especially critical is the situation in the Euskirchen district, where the Steinbach dam is located. If it gives way, the catastrophe could be capital. A team of engineers traveled to the area yesterday to assess the state of that dam, a review that will be repeated this Friday.

Experts have found cracks in the dam, calling it "very unstable

.

"

In anticipation of a rupture, several villages have been evacuated. In total about 4,500 people.

Inspection and rescue tasks are against the clock and in extremely difficult conditions.

There are no global data, but it is estimated that the local fire brigades have mobilized a total of half a thousand troops, to which some 900 soldiers have been added.

The army has also made numerous heavy vehicles available

.

At the moment, more than a hundred ambulances are also operating in the affected areas.

The catastrophe was unleashed when Chancellor Angela Merkel was visiting the United States.

From there he has sent his condolences to all the victims and promised urgent aid.

Because it is already clear that the affected federal states will not be able to meet the costs of reconstruction on their own.

The Minister President of North Rhine Westphalia, Armin Laschet

, has advanced this in an interview with the television channel ZDF

"We are going to help as much as we can, but a great national effort will be necessary

," he said.

The state of Rhineland-Palatinate, for its part, has already advanced that it will release 50 million euros to repair short-term damage to roads, bridges and other infrastructures.

Meanwhile, there are signs of solidarity, at the national level and from abroad.

One of the first messages of condolence has been that of Pope Francis and that of US President Joe Biden.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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