Wonderful photos - this is how the floods broke out in Germany

Swathes of land razed, streets swept away, neighborhoods wiped out: images from West Germany show the extent of the devastation caused by floods. Sites in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate are particularly affected.

In Erftstadt-Blessem, southwest of Cologne, water has created huge holes in the landscape. “Emergency calls are coming from homes, but rescue is often not possible,” the county government of Cologne wrote on Twitter Friday morning.

Legend:

In Erfstadt-Blessem there is a gap in the landscape.

Reuters / 16.07.2021

The floods came very quickly and were inundated with water within ten minutes, Frank Rock, district manager for Rhein Erft, broadcaster NTV, said. Figures for the dead were not initially available.

The water masses eroded the houses in the village, and some of them collapsed.

Pictures from storm areas give an idea of the workforce here.

Also in the Rhineland-Palatinate, many houses were washed away by masses of water and many other buildings were severely damaged. The disaster centered in the Ahrweiler region.

Rescue and clean-up work continued in the affected areas.

In the village of Schuld an der Ahr, with a population of 700, many homes and many other buildings, some of which were badly damaged, were washed away by the water.