“The situation remains serious” – At least four dead in floods in Germany

The woman’s body was discovered in the basement of a house in Schrobenhausen, Upper Bavaria. A police spokesman said on Monday it was the missing 43-year-old who had been sought since Sunday. On Sunday morning, a firefighter who died during a rescue operation was found dead in Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm. The man capsized in an inflatable boat while on a mission with three colleagues. A firefighter in Offingen is still missing.

Bodies recovered from cellar
Firefighters have recovered two bodies from a pumped-out cellar in Schorndorf in the Rems-Murr district of Baden-Württemberg. The police in Stuttgart confirmed this. The basement had previously been filled by flooding. The exact background of the death is still unclear. According to police, the deceased are a man and a woman. The identity of the two has not yet been clarified with certainty. The police have started an investigation. First one dead person was discovered, then the second.

Söder, however, did not yet see the danger in Bavaria averted. “It’s getting worse a little bit, but you can’t give a full warning,” he told Deutschlandfunk on Monday. Even if the rain stops, the inflow would still cause the levels of the larger rivers to rise, he said. Regensburg on the Danube has now been declared a disaster. “We see that the water is moving now,” he said, referring to Regensburg.

Passenger ship evacuated
A passenger ship was also evacuated in Deggendorf in Lower Bavaria. More than 140 people have been taken off the ship since noon, a spokeswoman for the district office said Monday.

During his visit to Bavaria, German Chancellor Scholz assured those affected of his solidarity. Solidarity is “what we as people need most,” he said. “We will do everything we can, including with the resources of the federal government, to ensure that relief can be delivered more quickly.”

Scholz was in Reichertshofen together with German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) and Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU). Faeser was impressed with how well the rescuers worked together. Her impression is that “lessons have been learned after the Ahr valley that it works much better in terms of coordination and cooperation”.

Signs of mild relaxation
On Monday, the flooding situation also had a firm grip on large parts of the region around Stuttgart, but also in Upper Swabia and the Allgäu. While rescuers there worked tirelessly against the water masses, there were slight signs of relaxation on other rivers.

Many schools in particularly affected regions of both states had canceled in-person classes on Monday, and daycares and support centers were also told to stay put. Emergency care is sometimes organized for younger schoolchildren.

The storm damage also had consequences for traffic. Deutsche Bahn continues to advise against travel to southern Germany. There are train cancellations on long-distance connections, and Munich in particular is not accessible from Stuttgart, Würzburg and Nuremberg, the railway announced on Monday.

Rhine partially closed to shipping
Germany’s most important waterway, the Rhine, was partially closed to shipping. The barriers are intended to prevent shipping traffic from causing damage to local residents. According to a spokesperson for the Waterways and Shipping Authority (WSA), the closures are unlikely to last very long “according to current forecasts”. The ships create waves that come over the bank at high tide and can fill cellars. The Rhine is considered an important transport route for goods such as grain, coal, gasoline and fuel oil.

After the breach of a dam in Upper Bavaria, the partially closed Autobahn 9 reopened to traffic on Monday. A kind of block clearing had been set up in the direction of Munich, a police spokesman said early in the afternoon.

More rain expected
The German Weather Service (DWD) expects persistent rain and storms in areas in the southwest early this week. South of the Swabian Alb, water volumes may drop to 30 to 40 liters per square meter in the evening. Heavy thunderstorms with heavy rain are possible in Upper Swabia, Lake Constance and the Allgäu. Hail may also fall in isolated cases. South of the Danube and in the Bavarian Forest, the German Weather Service also expects showers and heavy rain on Monday, with some heavy thunderstorms later in the day. Heavy rain is also possible.