The Flooding in Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg etc.

[ToffeePenniesAreTheBest]

I don't have anything of use to say really but I can't stop thinking about those poor people. It's utterly horrific isn't it? The scale of it all. I can't imagine what their family and friends are going through, waiting to hear news about their loved ones. There's nothing left for the survivors.

I know that major floods have always happened but it's depressing and scary what we're doing to our planet.

Just appalling, and events like this are only going to become more common and widespread. You do wonder what's got to happen before ALL world govts start to take this seriously. Those poor people.

I know it’s awful it it really is.😪

One of my school friends now lives near Dusseldorf, having visited her I can't imagine what the Rhine looks like when it's flooding. It was so much bigger than the Thames on an ordinary day. It's terrifying thinking that the villages we went to for a day trip might be flooded.

Govts will not take it seriously as long as consumers vote for policies that promote unbridled personal consumption and wealth creation.

The only thing that is going to work is learning to live with less. Less travel, less food and drink choices, less consumption of natural materials. Nobody wants to do that. It would make Covid look like a walk in the park. We are talking decades of restrictions in lifestyles to turn around human made climate change. If we can even do it at all. Rainforests are now net emitters of carbon. What is released will warm up the tundra, heating the permafrost and off we go again.

There will be mass migration to temperate regions, particularly forests. More people will migrate north than south. The majority of beaches may disappear in 40 years. These things will happen and cannot be reversed quickly. Peak consumption is over. It is going to get harder.

ATrifleofFun

I hope that your friend and her loved ones are ok. It's shocking to look at the before and after pics on the BBC site. I can't imagine not only my home and perhaps business but my entire community being destroyed like that.

BG21031

I've been thinking that. Not to dismiss the impact of Covid but the effects of climate change are going to completely dwarf that.

Btw I know that there's been horrific flooding recently in so many other countries including the U.S, China, Indonesia etc. Those are of course just as awful. Its just difficult to grasp the scale of this and it feels closer to home.

It's awful.

I hope this happening so close to home instead of Bangladesh, the Philippines etc finally makes people and governments take more notice.

It’s a nightmare. I have family and friends there and would have been there this week were it not for Covid. My family are all fine at the moment thank goodness and haven’t lost their homes but so many have.

People have started posting pictures of their missing relatives on Facebook. I feel I desperately want to help but obviously can’t. I just hope they don’t get more heavy rain.

This takes a long time to recover from too.Cumbria has just finished the repairs from Storm Desmond in 2016.

It's partly underfunding. Germany is very federalised and flood defences are expensive so the funding really needs to come from central government. Regional governments want to fund short term things that don't create debt. In Belgium, it's one of the poorer regions which does't spend so much on infrastructure. In the Netherlands we've had very few deaths and much less destruction (although still a lot). That's because there was worse flooding on the same rivers in the 90s and they massively improved the infrastructure after. It only takes ~20 years for people to forget though, so it's always a fight to get the funding to maintain it. There's suddenly been a load of new funding promised for areas where the dikes are looking a bit dodgy. It's horrendous how many have died in Germany, but I'm not convinced there is the political will to do anything to stop it.

I also can't stop thinking about this, and I have been surprised that there aren't more threads on it. So many people missing. It's just awful, but if this is the result of climate change, then perhaps it's the shape of things to come?

Thanks so much for thinking of them all. My family have been very lucky and the worst that has happened is no hot water as the gas pipe was taken out and the school shut but they are sounding quite traumatised by what has happened around them . They are in the Ahrweiler area so one of the worst effected areas.

I was talking to one last night and she said they have started trying to clean up but they can’t as no water to clean with. They can’t take broken furniture away as the streets aren’t clear, full of broken cars, rubbish and loads of mud. No petrol as it flowed out of the petrol stations and there is an awful stench of petrol everywhere, it looks like the aftermath of a war.

Her region has over 600 injured in addition to the many deaths. I think there is a hope that the number missing may not be as high as it looks and some are duplicated reports caused by the mobile system going down.

The Facebook pages are very busy with people offering help, rooms to those who have lost their homes, clothes, food and also space for animals. Lots of other regions are sending things and people from outside the area going up this weekend to help.

I’ve been going to the area for many many years and just can’t wuite wrap my head around what has happened.

It truly is awful and the environmenteal impact is horrendous.
There is has been rain in areas historicall 'dry', climate change is real and making areas 'easy to live in' for humans by removing trees, roots, extensive agriculture etc - the list can go on forever has not helped.

On an individual level, we are (at the moment) incredibly lucky: my sister's home is still above the water line and the friend we were missing has been in contact, other friends only had damage to property and did not loose their livelyhoods.

More people.
Less land.

Do the math.

Prokupatuscrakedatus thank goodness your missing friend has been in contact and everyone else ok.

I can’t quite wrap my head about the environmental impact at the moment.

It's horrifying isn't it. You sadly get used to this happening in less developed countries, but it is more shocking when it's so close to home.

I have been watching/hearing this news with absolute horror. So many dead and missing people, virtually on our doorstep. You don't imagine that wealthy first world countries don't have the infrastructure to keep people safe from natural disasters .

I don't know anyone living in the regions affected and am so sorry for all affected and those who are worrying about missing people.

There will be mass migration to temperate regions, particularly forests. More people will migrate north than south.

Of course that will just make pandemics more frequent and more deadly. A vicious cycle.

Some of my younger family members were up until 4am this morning. Most of the bridges are down so all the lovely people coming to help were asked to go else where as the few remaining roads were just getting clogged up. On top of that tourists came to see what is going on and were getting in the way of the clean up operation. They keep finding more people dead in the houses.

You sadly get used to this happening in less developed countries, but it is more shocking when it's so close to home.

Mother nature doesn't discriminate. I've heard this sentiment being expressed quite a bit online and it really is very mask off.

My relatives on the continent are okay but it's utterly devastating.

Really glad your relatives are ok VladmirsPoutine, which country are they in? It is utterly devastating.

Can't get over this calamity even though I am in no way affected. The death toll is more than double that of Grenfell Tower. I know they don't really compare ... it's just the sheer scale of it, and how you assume you are safe in your house when it is not in a shanty town or in a country affected by earth quakes or general extremes of weather.

The people of the countries affected our almost our neighbours and must be heartbroken and yet we hardly heard about it in the news here.

That is majorly pissing me off at the moment and I do apologise but I am going to vent a little. I have lots of very lovely friends who are usually really supportive as I Hope they feel I am too for them.

One has asked if my family are ok, one.

This thread! Wow! Apart from the devastation there really is some sort of dissertation to be conducted at part of the shock, sadness being that it's happening in regions which aren't: pOoR, ShAnTy ToWnZ, 3rd WorLd. It's almost as though....

Thoughts for anyone whose friends or family have been affected, hope they are all safe and well.

Oh give over VP! just stop it.