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Other Post Accidents, disasters and other noteworthy incidents

muck

muck

Mi Field Marshall
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TheMess.Net
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Germany
I noticed threads pertaining to the title are scattered all over the forum, so we might as well pool further news of calamities from around the world in here. I'll make a start with a bit of an emergency unfolding in Western Germany right now.

Catastrophic flashfloods have devastated villages in the Southern Rhineland during the night. Two firefighters drowned during rescue operations. The worst-hit municipality, a town called Schuld near the famous Nürburgring race track, reports thirty people feared dead after a deluge of water brought down at least six houses. The nearby Steinbachtal dam is at risk of imminent collapse, say the authorities and have ordered widespread evacuations. (Source, German)

Rest in peace. Terrible way to go, being swept away in your sleep.

Edit: The police now say up to 60 people are missing, with four confirmed dead.
 
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Jesus Christ, 42 dead and 70 missing. Two entire villages have been wiped off the face of the earth. I hate to say it, but much like the Fukushima disaster and the heat wave of 2019, this catastrophe is going to influence the German general elections later this year.
 
muck said:
Jesus Christ, 42 dead and 70 missing. Two entire villages have been wiped off the face of the earth. I hate to say it, but much like the Fukushima disaster and the heat wave of 2019, this catastrophe is going to influence the German general elections later this year.
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Yeah, you might be right about the potential fallout for the upcoming elections. The greens might go to town, let's hope they don't do too well.

Fish&Chips said:
The flood of 2002 comes to mind where the river Elbe and its tributaries wreaked havoc in eastern Germany. :(
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And that particular flood helped the @sshole Schröder increase his voter share in the region substantially.
 
With nine dead reported on the Belgian side of the border of the Eiffel region, the blood toll now stands at 67 perished and 100 missing.
 
muck said:
Good God, Ahrweiler County now reports 1,300 people as missing.
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How many - that's a lot

Looked like a lot of old buildings - I saw a tree that had been in the water and what struck me was it had been debarked - looked a real mess
 
muck said:
Good God, Ahrweiler County now reports 1,300 people as missing.
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This is insane, and I’m confident the authorities there have valid reasons to come up with such a claim and number.

TBH, I can’t remember such a weather related disaster in Europe for many years, it will turn out if confirmed by the grim toll to be Germany owns “Hurricane Katrina”.
 
It seems this was the rain London got, in the last few days, but it slowed down over the western part of Germany, 3 months rain in 24 hours. Looks bad. I hope not 1300, but could be more than the 60 dead.
 
BCNTM said:
How many - that's a lot

Looked like a lot of old buildings - I saw a tree that had been in the water and what struck me was it had been debarked - looked a real mess
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w5n5p39o.gif

This is a picture from Altenburg, one of the worst-hit towns in the area. No river runs through that valley, only a small brook and a road. Reports say the flash flood was about 6.5 metres high. All buildings in the marked area are gone, many others are severely damaged.

The Eiffel is a hilly, rural region with mostly historic buildings, the majority of them half-timbered with wattle and daub. Once the water gets into the walls and sufficiently softens them, the entire material will be swept away.
Jake84 said:
This is insane, and I’m confident the authorities there have valid reasons to come up with such a claim and number.

TBH, I can’t remember such a weather related disaster in Europe for many years, it will turn out if confirmed by the grim toll to be Germany owns “Hurricane Katrina”.
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It's on track to becoming the worst natural disaster since the North Sea Flood of 1962, which claimed about 350 lives mainly in Northern Germany.
 
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morris said:
Sounds like what we had in March-April, I'm still recovering. Hopefully there won't be any land slides up hills.
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Here in Germany, everyone and their dog now talk about climate change. No one talks about the fact that flood prevention measures along brooks and small rivers were neglected for decades. We've seen plenty of large floods over the years, particularly on the rivers Danube and Oder, and all attention was directed to securing the large towns and cities along those streams. Little was done everywhere else. Wildlife conservation laws, landmark status rules and litigious residents unwilling to give up their priced vista prevented the necessary steps left, right and centre.
 
muck said:
Here in Germany, everyone and their dog now talk about climate change. No one talks about the fact that flood prevention measures along brooks and small rivers were neglected for decades. We've seen plenty of large floods over the years, particularly on the rivers Danube and Oder, and all attention was directed to securing the large towns and cities along those streams. Little was done everywhere else. Wildlife conservation laws, landmark status rules and litigious residents unwilling to give up their priced vista prevented the necessary steps left, right and centre.
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Same here, minor parties jumped on climate change band wagon but there are other reasons like bad development planning by local governments.
 
muck said:
View attachment 322410
This is a picture from Altenburg, one of the worst-hit towns in the area. No river runs through that valley, only a small brook and a road. Reports say the flash flood was about 6.5 metres high. All buildings in the marked area are gone, many others are severely damaged.

The Eiffel is a hilly, rural region with mostly historic buildings, the majority of them half-timbered with wattle and daub. Once the water gets into the walls and sufficiently softens them, the entire material will be swept away.It's on track to becoming the worst natural disaster since the North Sea Flood of 1962, which claimed about 350 lives mainly in Northern Germany.
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5jgig3jyneb71.jpg
 
That's really terrible. The flood must have been really powerful to wash away houses. I suspect that also pre fabricated wooden houses don't stand the flood as good.

All the best for the affected people and hopefully it is not as grim as it seems now.

Two weeks ago we also had the sirens going of. I live in a Munich suburb and the rainfall was so heavy all firefighters had to be called-in by the sirens.
 
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92 bodies have been found, 1,300 people are still unaccounted for. I don't understand how a developed nation could so tragically fail to alert those in danger. Granted, Germans have a nasty way of not taking weather-related risks seriously; this is a people that attends open-air concerts during well-forecasted thunderstorms and acts all surprised when lightning strikes leave dozens hurt. (True story.)

But either way, grave mistakes were made by those in charge. It had rained for 48 hours straight, up to 200 litres per square metre in some places. Yet still regional public broadcaster WDR didn't even interrupt its programme to warn its viewers. There should've been evacuations. This was a disaster waiting to happen, and all the journalists talk about is fricking global warming.

fo24l3pc.png


This is Blessem, a town of 2,000. That huge basin in the background? Wasn't there yesterday. Dozens of houses were swallowed by a huge sinkhole. And alarmingly, there's no access to the place, but many pleas of help from residents trapped in the remains of their homes. Civil defence corps pathfinders have been sent to sound out the situation. Jesus, I've never seen such natural devastation in this country before.
 
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