Updated: 20:09 ET, Jul 19 2021
GERMANY flood warnings reportedly did not reach locals in time before the rain hit - with more than 170 people still missing in the killer deluge.
Warning systems sent out alerts a few days before the heavy rain hit, but failed to reach many residents or officials in time, according to BBC reports.
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A policeman looks at a piece of road that has sunken in the city of Altenahr, Rhineland-PalatinateCredit: AFP
More than 180 people were killed in the deluge, with more than 170 still missing as the devastating clean-up effort begins.
Armin Schuster, head of the Federal Office for Civil Protection, said the warning infrastructure wasn t our problem, but the effectiveness with which authorities and the population reacted to these warnings .
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Some 155 people have been confirmed dead in Germany while 27 have died in Belgium.
Germany’s finance minister Olaf Scholz has said that officials must begin setting up a rebuilding programme which is likely to cost billions.
He said he would propose a package of immediate aid, totalling at least 300 million euros (£257 million), at a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Chancellor Angela Merkel is set to visit the devastated Schuld, a village near Ahrweiler in the worst-hit Rhineland-Palatinate region, on Sunday. Some 110 people are known to have died in the region.
Some 65 people were evacuated from their homes in Germany‘s Berchtesgaden area after the Ache River swelled. At least one person was killed.
By GEIR MOULSON Associated Press
July 18, 2021
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel, rear third left, and the Governor of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, Malu Dreyer, rear fifth left, are seen on a bridge in Schuld, western Germany, Sunday, July 18, 2021 during their visit in the flood-ravaged areas to survey the damage and meet survivors. After days of extreme downpours causing devastating floods in Germany and other parts of western Europe the death toll has risen. (Christof Stache/Pool Photo via AP)
BERLIN (AP) German Chancellor Angela Merkel surveyed what she called a “surreal, ghostly” scene in a devastated village on Sunday, pledging quick financial aid and a redoubled political focus on curbing climate change as the death toll from floods in Western Europe climbed above 180.