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Friday,16 July 2021 (YJC) _, More than 1,000 people were missing and more homes were destroyed in flood-stricken regions of western Germany and Belgium.
More than 1,000 people were missing and more homes were destroyed in flood-stricken regions of western Germany and Belgium on Friday where waters were still rising and the death toll was already at about 117.
Entire communities lay in ruins after swollen rivers swept through towns and villages in the western German states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate, Belgium as well as the Netherlands.
"It was so terrible, we couldn't help anyone. People were waving out of the windows," Frank Thel, a resident of Schuld, told Reuters in front of a pile of rubble in the Rhineland-Palatinate town, where several buildings had collapsed.
In Germany alone, 103 people have died in what is the country's worst mass loss of life in years. Twelve of the dead were residents of a home for disabled people in Sinzig south of Cologne who were surprised by the flash floods during the night.
The death toll is expected to rise further as more houses collapsed, while in Belgium, media said at least 14 had died.
Some 114,000 households in Germany were without power and mobile phone networks collapsed in some flooded regions, which meant that family and friends were unable to track down their loved ones.
"Our state is experiencing a flood catastrophe of historic dimensions," North Rhine-Westphalia premier Armin Laschet said, citing extensive damage in 23 towns and rural districts.
In Rhineland-Palatinate, around 1,300 people were reported missing in the Ahrweiler district south of Cologne, the district government said on Facebook.
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