Floods in Germany: worst disaster in 30 years – News

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who visited flood-affected areas in the west of her country on Sunday, called the scene “surreal and ghostly” and said the fight should “hurry” against climate change.

“It is a surreal and ghostly situation. I would almost say that the German language struggles to find the words to describe the devastation that has been caused.“Merkel said at a press conference after visiting one of the towns affected by the floods.

In dialogue with Channel 3Néstor Bus Fully, a man from Cordoba in Germany, pointed out that the water is dropping, but that it is the country hardest hit by the floods which also affected the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Austria and the Belgium.

“This is closely linked to climate change. This is what we hear the most and the political use we give to the situation at the moment“, he warned.

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“We are coming out of Covid-19. For a year and a half the country has been paralyzed and we have gone from confinement to confinement, ”he described.

Regarding what happened, he stressed the charity of the people to help and said that the reconstruction of the affected areas could take at least two years and billions of euros.

“It is a complicated situation and it is used a lot politically. If we did not have the Covid, we would be talking about 16 times the number of a terrorist attack. It is the worst disaster in the last three decades in Germany“, Hill.

The region of Rhineland-Palatinate, in southwestern Germany, was one of the worst-hit regions, with 112 of the country’s 160 dead, while 31 people died in Belgium.

An emergency aid plan of at least 300 million euros ($ 354 million) will be presented to the government on Wednesday, followed by a reconstruction program of several million dollars.

Repairs to buildings, roads, railways, water and electricity pipes will take months, if not “years,” admitted Armin Laschet, president of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s other regional state. most affected.

Germany remains on alert for further flooding in the south and east. One person died in Bavaria, where several hundred firefighters are still deployed in the Alpine valleys.

Interview with Miguel Claria