[custom_adv] SCHULD, Germany, July 15 (Reuters) - At least 42 people have died in Germany and dozens were missing on Thursday as swollen rivers caused by record rainfall across western Europe swept through towns and villages, leaving cars upended, houses destroyed and people stranded on rooftops. [custom_adv] As the water started to recede, stunned residents in the worst affected towns inspected what was left of their homes and neighbourhoods.In the town of Schuld, houses were reduced to piles of debris and broken beams. Roads were blocked by wreckage and fallen trees and fish flapped and gasped on puddles of water in the middle of the street. [custom_adv] "We have had two or three days of constant rain. Or maybe four, I lost track," said Klaus Radermacher, who has been living in Schuld for 60 years. [custom_adv] "I saw the pizza store getting flooded, half an hour later the bakery was flooded. There is a camping ground up there, so caravans and campervans came floating past, gas tanks. We were powerless against it. It came so fast, I've never seen anything like it." [custom_adv] Eighteen people died and dozens were unaccounted for around the wine-growing region of Ahrweiler, in Rhineland-Palatinate state, police said, after the Ahr river that flows into the Rhine broke its banks and brought down half a dozen houses. [custom_adv] Another 15 people died in the Euskirchen region south of the city of Bonn, authorities said. People in the region were asked to evacuate their homes and emergency workers were pumping water from a dam south of Euskirchen town, fearing it could burst. [custom_adv] In Belgium, two men died due to the torrential rain and a 15-year-old girl was missing after being swept away by an overflowing river. Hundreds of soldiers and 2,500 relief workers were helping police with rescue efforts in Germany. Tanks were deployed to clear roads of landslides and fallen trees and helicopters winched those stranded on rooftops to safety. [custom_adv] In Ahrweiler, two wrecked cars were propped steeply against either side of the town's stone gate and locals used snow shovels and brooms to sweep mud from their homes and shops after the floodwaters receded. [custom_adv] "I was totally surprised. I had thought that water would come in here one day, but nothing like this," said resident Michael Ahrend. "This isn't a war - it's simply nature hitting out. Finally, we should start paying attention to it." [custom_adv] The floods have caused Germany's worst mass loss of life in years. Flooding in 2002 killed 21 people in eastern Germany and more than 100 across the wider central European region. [custom_adv] Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed her dismay and vowed to help the affected communities rebuild."I tell those affected: we will not leave you alone in those difficult and scary times," she said during a news conference at the White House alongside U.S. President Joe Biden, who expressed his condolences to the victims. "We will also help with reconstruction." [custom_adv] In Washington for a farewell visit before she steps down following a federal election in September, Merkel said weather extremes were becoming more frequent which required action to counter global warming.Pope Francis also extended his condolences to the victims and their families. [custom_adv] Armin Laschet, the conservative candidate to succeed Merkel as chancellor and premier of the hard-hit state of North Rhine-Westphalia, blamed the extreme weather on global warming. [custom_adv] "We will be faced with such events over and over, and that means we need to speed up climate protection measures, on European, federal and global levels, because climate change isn't confined to one state," he said during a visit to the area. [custom_adv] Climate and the environment are central themes in the election campaign, in which Laschet is going head-to-head with Social Democrat candidate Olaf Scholz and Annalena Baerbock of the Greens. [custom_adv] In Belgium, around 10 houses collapsed in Pepinster after the river Vesdre flooded the eastern town and residents were evacuated from more than 1,000 homes. [custom_adv] The rain also caused severe disruption to public transport, with high-speed Thalys train services to Germany cancelled. Traffic on the river Meuse is also suspended as the major Belgian waterway threatened to breach its banks. [custom_adv] Downstream in the Netherlands, flooding rivers damaged many houses in the southern province of Limburg, where several care homes were evacuated.In addition to the fatalities in the Euskirchen region, another nine people, including two firefighters, died elsewhere in NorthRhine-Westphalia. [custom_adv] Heavy rainfall and flooding have wreaked devastation across parts of western Europe, with rescue workers currently trying to prevent further damage.The death toll rose above 150 on Saturday, according to media reports, with that figure expected to rise as flood waters recede. [custom_adv] Parts of Switzerland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands have been affected, but the most severe flooding is reportedly in Germany and Belgium. [custom_adv] Germany’s Ahrweiler county in the Rhineland-Palatinate state is one of the worst-hit areas, along with North Rhine-Westphalia, the country’s most populated state. [custom_adv] The scenes of devastation in Stolberg were replicated across swaths of western Germany and Belgium this week as floods devastated low-lying towns in the region. [custom_adv] In Germany, at least 133 people have died, making it the worst natural disaster to hit the country in almost 60 years.The Ahrweiler district south of Cologne reported at least 90 dead, among them 12 residents of a care home for the disabled. [custom_adv] The tragedy has raised widespread concerns that German authorities have not done enough to prepare for increasingly frequent bouts of extreme weather, driven by climate change. [custom_adv] Between Tuesday and Thursday, an unusually static low-pressure zone dumped record levels of rainfall, with the worst-affected areas battered by intense storms over Wednesday night.Some received as much as two months of rainfall in just 24 hours, Germany’s meteorological agency said. [custom_adv] The city of Hagen declared a state of emergency after the Volme burst its banks and its waters rose to levels not seen more than four times a century. [custom_adv] The most striking of more than a dozen records was set at the Köln-Stammheim station, which was deluged in 154mm of rain over 24 hours, obliterating the city’s previous daily rainfall high of 95mm.
