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Wednesday,21 July 2021 (YJC) _ German gov’t moves to deliver aid, promises billions-strong reconstruction programme following deadly flooding.
Germany’s cabinet has approved an approximately 400 million euro ($472m) package of immediate aid for the victims of last week’s devastating floods.
Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said on Wednesday more money could yet be provided to help people deal with the aftermath of the deadly natural disaster if needed.
“We will do what is necessary to help everyone as quickly as possible,” he told reporters in the capital, Berlin.
The package will be half financed by the federal government and half by Germany’s 16 state governments.
Authorities in the two most heavily affected states of Rhineland-Palatinate and neighbouring North Rhine-Westphalia are responsible for determining which individuals receive aid, and how much.
“It’s necessary to send a message quickly that there is a future, that we are taking care of it together, that this is a matter for us as the whole country to help with,” he said.
Germany has recent experience with major floods that hit swaths of the country, particularly the east, in 2002 and 2013.
Those incidents caused extensive and costly damage.
However, the death tolls were particularly high in last week’s floods, which were the worst in living memory in the areas they hit.
At least 170 people were killed in Germany when small rivers swelled quickly into raging torrents after persistent downpours.
Another 31 died in neighbouring Belgium, bringing the combined death toll in both countries to more than 200.
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