The worst rain in a century leaves dozens dead and hundreds missing in Germany, authorities say

Berlin (CNN) – Catastrophic flooding in Germany has killed at least 103 people and hundreds more missing, authorities said Friday, as large-scale rescue efforts continue amid rising water levels, landslides and power outages. Energy.

Shocking images of the devastation show entire villages underwater, with cars wedged between collapsed buildings and rubble.

In the hardest-hit district of Ahrweiler, in the western state of Rhineland-Palatinate, the death toll could rise further, authorities told CNN on Friday.

“There is no end in sight yet,” Ulrich Sopart, a police spokesman in the city of Koblenz, told CNN. There are currently 1,300 people missing in Ahrweiler, he said, adding that authorities hope to reduce that number as the rescue operation continues and telephone lines are restored.

“We hope that some people have been registered as missing two or even three times, if, for example, a family member, a work colleague or a friend has registered a person as missing,” Sopart said.

”Also, [en] some places the phone lines still don’t work and reception is difficult. We hope that people will contact a family member, co-worker or friend to let them know that they are doing well, “he said.

At least 165,000 people are currently without power in Rhineland-Palatinate and the neighboring state of North Rhine-Westphalia, authorities told CNN.

The death toll in the two states is currently 50 and 43 respectively.

In North Rhine-Westphalia, the spokeswoman for the state Interior Ministry, Katja Heins, told CNN: “The situation is still very dynamic; we do not know how many people are missing.”

Extreme rainfall totals were seen between Wednesday and Thursday morning around western Germany, as well as in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.

The German states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland have been hit the hardest by what authorities have called the heaviest rains in a century.

“In some areas we had not seen so much rain in 100 years,” said a spokesman for the German DWD Meteorological Service, adding that in those regions, they have “seen more than double the amount of rain,” causing flooding and collapse of structures. .

Large swaths of western Germany recorded a total 24-hour rainfall of between 100 and 150 millimeters, representing more than a month of rain in this region, according to CNN meteorologist Brandon Miller.

Cologne, in North Rhine-Westphalia, recorded 154 millimeters of rain in the 24 hours, as of Thursday morning, which is almost double its monthly average for July.

The strongest localized downpours resulted in extreme flash flooding. At Reifferscheid in the Ahrweiler district, an incredible 207 millimeters of rain fell in just nine hours, according to the European Severe Weather Database.

The intense floods were the result of a slow-moving low-pressure area, which allowed a conveyor belt of warm, humid air to feed powerful thunderstorms and heavy, long-lasting rain, according to the German Weather Service.

Extreme rains are becoming more common in hot weather, as warmer air can hold more water vapor than is available to fall as rain.

“Climate change has reached Germany,” Environment Minister Svenja Schulze tweeted on Thursday. Speaking to German radio channel Inforadio, Schulze added that “the events show how strongly the consequences of climate change can affect us all, and how important it is for us to adapt to extreme weather events in the future.”

Hannah Cloke, a professor of hydrology at the UK’s University of Reading, told CNN that “these kinds of high-energy, sudden torrents of summer rain are exactly what we expect in our rapidly warming climate.”

On Thursday, the DWD predicted that “the worst of the torrential rains has passed”, although more heavy rains are expected in southwestern Germany this Friday.

In neighboring Belgium, 12 people have died, authorities said on Friday, and another five people in the southern region of Wallonia are still missing.

Some 21,000 people are also without electricity in Wallonia, according to energy provider Ores, which said the situation on the electricity grid remains “extremely complicated”. Some 300 distribution points are flooded and impossible to reach, he said.

Nadine Schmidt reported from Berlin; Barbara Wojazer, from Paris, and Sharon Braithwaite and Vasco Cotovio reported in London. Kara Fox, James Frater, and Melissa Gray contributed to this report.