Storm: More than 133 dead in Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia - Merkel visits flooded areas

After the storm disaster in Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia, the number of dead continues to rise. In Rhineland-Palatinate, police reported more than 90 victims in the Ahrweiler area alone on Saturday morning. This brought the total number of confirmed fatalities in Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia to more than 133, although numerous people remained missing. The situation in the affected regions remained very tense and unclear during the night to Saturday.

In connection with the flood disaster in the Ahrweiler area, the death toll "unfortunately increased to over 90," wrote the Koblenz police on Twitter on Saturday morning. More deaths are to be feared, they added. Accordingly, the number of injured rose to more than 600. The total number of confirmed fatalities in NRW was 43 on Friday evening.

Number of missing unknown

With information on the number of missing people, the authorities were mostly restrained. As mobile phone networks and telephone lines remained down in several areas, there was no way to trace contacts by phone.

In the Ahr Valley, which was hit particularly hard, police said most roads remained closed or impassable on Saturday morning. Among the fatalities in the Ahrweiler district of Rhineland-Palatinate were twelve residents of a home for the disabled in Sinzig, who drowned helplessly.

After the dam broke in the Heinsberg district of North Rhine-Westphalia, the village of Ohe was completely evacuated there, a spokeswoman for the Cologne district government told the AFP news agency. There and in the village of Ophoven, a total of 700 people were affected by the evacuations.

Dramatic scenes played out in Erftstadt, south of Cologne. The Erft, which overflowed its banks, washed out numerous houses and caused them to collapse in whole or in part. Erosion occurred, causing large areas of soil to break away.

The flooding made numerous roads and rail lines impassable. Many long-distance trains operated by Deutsche Bahn were cancelled.