Germany and the impact of extreme weather | DW Documentary

[Music] so so many people dead [Music] we suddenly heard a rushing sound and then i saw cars floating through the village it's crazy what kind of damage the water did in less than an hour we knew about how high the water would be but had no idea what that meant seven meters we had no sense of what would happen [Music] [Music] the water in the ah river kept rising slowly our longtime residents said everything was still fine we got sandbags and we stacked them up 50 centimeters high we said well that will do it the water rose very slowly and then within five minutes it started pouring in from every corner from all around us not just the our river it came from behind us too everywhere all we could do was grab the dog whatever we had in our hands and go upstairs and hope that the water wouldn't reach the top floor i lovely ah i can't believe it how could the r river do this to us how could god do this to us [Music] [Music] fierce floods sweep through germany with catastrophic consequences rivers burst their banks after relentless rains water races down small town roads inundating entire areas dozens of people have died including two firefighters many more are missing hundreds of thousands of homes are without power helicopter crews have lifted stranded villagers to safety thank you [Music] yes we had renovated and modernized the house from the ground up added another story on top it was all new underfloor heating tiling the bathroom kitchen all night and then a few days ago the flood hit it was so fast we didn't even have time to rescue our valuables we spent 24 hours up on the top floor the firefighters came and asked us are you all right okay you'll have to make do for a while it was cooking we couldn't leave the house the water was chest high but we're alive so many people died it's hard to believe it's hard to imagine what happened here we probably haven't seen as much as the people who live a bit further away and saw the images taken from the helicopter but from what we've heard all the way to the rhine river everything's underwater it is not sure it's a lovely town available it was we love our town and now it's destroyed i can't even describe how horrible it is there's no way to clean this up by hand on our own we're hard-working people but just a day ago i was thinking about weeding now the garden's gone i'm not sure we can fix this it will take years what has god done to us the worst flooding in decades has killed at least 150 people in europe most of the deaths are in western germany the disaster area stretches between the districts of hinesburg afstadt and availa near the border with the netherlands and belgium a massive cleanup operation is underway as rescue crews search for survivors more than a thousand are still missing [Music] and i'd ask anyone who's not all right if there's anyone we could contact we have no electricity no water internet or mobile data phones don't work i don't know who's been affected and if there's anywhere i could help [Music] [Music] it's a tough situation but what can we do but get to work how are we supposed to cope with all of this mud i have no idea you heard what it's like it's everywhere and the city isn't helping us at all we've heard nothing from them yet [Music] we drove here yesterday it took six hours then we got set up there's a police escort they got us set up with permission to come into the disaster zone it was utter chaos tractors but no coordination so we tried to bring some structure into things to coordinate things we turned this into a one-way street so that the vehicles the big machinery go in one direction they load up here down there they unload next to the road we're trying to clear the main square first then the main street and then the side streets again is [Music] foreign [Music] i'm michael oku welcome to the program germany's chancellor angela merkel has arrived in one of the regions in western germany that was most affected by severe flooding which killed at least 156 people the disaster area in germany spans more than a hundred kilometers near the border with the netherlands and belgium say the german language hardly has the words to describe this level of devastation but what i also saw was very comforting how people are sticking together how they're helping each other the solidarity we're standing at your side at the state and federal level we will work together step by step to restore everything in this lovely region [Music] oh [Music] you can't leave them to fend for themselves you have to help i'd want help if this had happened to me so i'm glad to see people pitching in i think i feel we don't know many of these people we don't even know where they came from but they're helping with the clean up all of this help we're getting it's overwhelming i'm not sure [Music] germany has given us a lot and we feel integrated here we have all our media it doesn't matter whether they're germans or foreigners to somehow help and make things better hand in hand we'll do everything we can when you see how large this area is and imagine the thousands of people who've organized themselves and are helping out that gives me goosebumps [Applause] [Music] young people who helped others people trying to escape who died in their cars when the flash flood many people died on their way up from their basements because they couldn't get out anymore when the water came we have to face these realities in the coming days and weeks and it will be another heavy shock to deal with we'll have to start over lots of people are saying they'll leave but my sister and i were a close-knit family and that's not an option we stood strong all through the pandemic we're not going to let this flood break us [Music] yes [Music] i've been an antiquarian bookseller art dealer and auctioneer for 33 years with some of these books my heart doesn't bleed so much but we've lost some from 15 10 and 15 20 from the early days of printing which are irreplaceable [Music] that's right i worked here seven days a week for 12 14 16 hours but at some point you can't keep going i don't want to complain others have lost absolutely everything but we still have everything that matters we're alive we came this morning and started cleaning up but really we're just throwing things out nothing can be salvaged water's in the oven the refrigeration is ruined the basement is full everything flooded it's unbelievable we're not talking about a few thousand euros i estimate it'll cost several hundred thousand euros to get the restaurant going again i've been here for 43 years and i've never experienced anything like this i came from italy in 1979 all of this hasn't even sunk in yet [Music] we begin the day with those devastating floods in western germany and belgium almost 200 people have died many more are still missing last wednesday the skies opened up dumping in 24 hours twice the amount of rainfall the region usually receives in a month in the middle of the night rivers jumped their banks flash floods hit so quickly that many were still in bed when their homes and lives were washed [Music] away luckily i have my sister but we've been told now our house could collapse so we've had to leave we've never seen anything like this i could never have imagined it we've had a bit of water before but nothing like this the water came up to the ceiling it's catastrophic of course um the european union has been helping with helicopters with both but i just reassured the citizens that we will of course be here also for reconstruction but also happy to see all the solidarity it's brought honestly that's wonderful [Music] so today german chancellor angela merkel spent a second day where cleanup efforts have begun provided that there is anything left to salvage michael today pushed back against criticism of the national emergency warning system but she said there will be a review of what worked and what did not work well you don't have to look too far the devastation is so vast that merkel has described it as being surreal but surreal also describes attempts to defend an emergency warning system that obviously failed at the moment when information made all the difference between life and death scientists predicted the flooding days in advance but many residents say the element of human failure turned a natural disaster into a man-made death trap we will not forget about you the day after tomorrow we are going to keep abreast of how the reconstruction is progressing and we will work with you to ensure that financial support quickly reaches people many of whom have nothing left except for the clothes on their back and need support so pictures of my parents holiday mementos [Music] what's that [Music] if there's anything positive that's come out of this disaster it's the outpouring of solidarity it's amazing i'm proud of everyone of how we're supporting each other [Music] is it still livable or has it gone forever [Music] [Music] you

Channel: DW Documentary

Views: 2,151,643

Keywords: Documentary, Documentaries, documentaries, DW documentary, full documentary, DW, documentary 2021, flood, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Bavaria, heavy rain, Germany, Ahrweiler, climate change

Id: 8yilkiOfSWo

Length: 26min 1sec (1561 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 25 2021