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.

I don’t understand what VP is saying so feeling a bit thick here.

We used to live not far from the region and would go walking in the Eifel. It happening somewhere I have personally been makes it a lot more shocking as well as being literally closer to home.

I know that major floods have always happened but it's depressing and scary what we're doing to our planet.
Not on this scale at this particular geographic location though.

I hope this happening so close to home instead of Bangladesh, the Philippines etc finally makes people and governments take more notice.
China is the biggest contributor to global warming and I doubt the Chinese government will take notice of German floods .

@SerendipityJane

More people. Less land.

Do the math.

@SerendipityJane, I think you need to 'do the math' again.

The regions affected by the flood have mainly had declining populations in recent years.

@SerendipityJane, I think you need to 'do the math' again.

The regions affected by the flood have mainly had declining populations in recent years.

I was talking about the globe, not a corner of it. If you remove a few million acres by raising sea levels then - populated or not - you are simply increasing the pressure on what's left. All flooded empty land means is there's less available for the remaining people in occupied lands to spread to as their "regions" become uninhabitable.

But, if you want to simply focus on the regions with flooding, rather than the globe, knock yourself out. At this stage in the game it won't really makie much difference.

@FoolsAssassin

I don’t understand what VP is saying so feeling a bit thick here.

VP is accusing me of feeling that the loss of life is more terrible because it affected a European country rather than a third world country. Which is quite a reach and also pure bollocks.

It is more surprising certainly not more tragic.

Thanks for explaining and I’m sorry to have asked . I absolutely agree that it is absolutely not more tragic and I haven’t got anyone saying that it is from the thread,

It's horrendous what's happened to so many towns and villages. The devastation is huge. My heart goes out to everyone living in an affected area and to all of you with friends and family who have been impacted.

It will take a long time to clean up and recover, and families who lost loved ones will never recover. I hope goverments will invest more heavily in flood defences and in reducing carbon emissions now.

I'm glad to hear that everyone's loved ones(Everyone who has posted so far) are comparatively ok. It's terrible to see the death toll rising so day by day and still so many unaccounted for. Heartbreaking too to see the utter devastation that the survivors have to face.

stodgystollen

It's insane that something as important as flood defences has been left to regional governments. I hope that someone has the sense to change that.

The scenes in China are horrific. People drowning in trains and tunnels. We all have a part to play in minimising the role of climate change but we need governments to do more. Unfortunately I don't think that will happen. At least not soon.

Just watched some footage from China, it is horrific.

Death toll still rising in Germany as they are finding people who drowned in their houses. Some villages are still cut off.

That's tragic FoolsAssassin. The thought of drowning in your own home is unimaginably horrifying. Of course drowning is always horrific, but dying like that in the one place you should feel safest is particularly cruel. I shudder to think what the final toll is.

I don't know if there are any charities accepting donations to help affected areas. I'll have to look.

Many parts if the town I live in were flooded, my neighbours cellar fooded, another friend who is a DJ had his music room flooded, we are luckily we live on top of a hill but the water from our road and our driveway was what flooded the neighbours across the road. At the bottom of our little hamlet right near the river Wupper a family have lost everything, it is horrible. My husband and I we had to drive to Munich on Wednesday as my husband had surgery on Friday, luckily we left when we did as we wouldn't have gotten out of town if we had left a couple of hours later, it was horrible seeing all the post on Facebook of our town being under water.

My aunt lives in a village between Kaprun and Zell am See in Austria. Local lake completed flooded destroying the immediate area and all the small businesses that had been desperate to open up post covid restrictions

What we should not be doing is building on flood plains because greenfield sites are easier for developers. Plenty of brownfield sites are available.

scoobiedoo I am so sorry to hear that. I hope your Husband is recovering well. I can imagine that was really grim seeing t on Facebook.

Emlouwat I was thinking that, it will finish lots off I guess.

There are some places taking donations , the Volksbank is doubling any donation I think I read.

@newnortherner111

What we should not be doing is building on flood plains because greenfield sites are easier for developers. Plenty of brownfield sites are available.

I agree.

However, many of the areas affected by these recent disasters have never flooded in living memory and would not have been considered flood plains.

many of the areas affected by these recent disasters have never flooded in living memory and would not have been considered flood plains

their cellars have routinely flooded (not sure about Ahrweiler but a friend in Bonn said her cellar was flooded and my ex-boyfriend in Bingen, further down the Rhine, said their cellar flooded regularly, so it wasn't unusual and whenever you walk along the river you see old flood marks and wonder how the water ever got that high!

As for building on flood plains it does have to stop in the UK. Every time you build on green field land you take away somewhere that absorbs water and it creates a bigger flood risk.

Thanks FoolsAssassin, my husband is fine seeing the best cardiologist in the country has its advantages. Parts of my town have flooded before since I moved here five years ago, but nowhere near as badly as this week.

I think the Rhine does get high and some cellars flood and they are used to it and live accordingly. I’m not aware of the Ahrweiler area is prone to flooding though could be wrong. I certainly have never thought of it being a flood plane, it’s quite hilly.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-57862570 This gives a bit of info about the previous flooding situation,

It has never occurred to me it may flood to be honest, I always thought snow would potentially be their worst problem.

@VladmirsPoutine

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....

I think some of the shock comes from the fact that really as discussed upthread is that it's largely preventable with sensible funding into flood defences. It's not that these countries don't have the money it's that they are choosing to spend it elsewhere. Cross your fingers and hope that when a disaster happens the other party is in power.

Compare that with a flooding somewhere like Haiti; they are the poorest country in the western hemisphere. Tragic that people die during flooding there but not surprising.