At Least 4 Dead as Floods Break Dams and Submerge Highways in Southern Germany

An Audi A4 at Audi headquarters in Ingolstadt before the rains came.
A weekend of unrelenting rain led to multiple towns to declare states of emergency and evacuate residents in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg.
Water submerged streets and highways, broke dams, and derailed a high-speed train.
Tens of thousands of emergency responders from the two Bundesländer as well as neighboring areas have been rescuing people from the autos and homes, building emergency dams, and setting up emergency accommodations for those who had to evacuate.
The amount of rain that fell from midday Friday to Monday at noon ranged from 30 to 40 gallons (120 to 160 liters) per square meter (approximately 11 square feet), according to Sebastian Altnau, a meteorologist with the Deutscher Wetterdienst.
Bundeskanzler Olaf Scholz said during a visit to affected areas on Monday that federal emergency services and the military were being deployed.
“We must not neglect the task of halting man-made climate change,” he told reporters. “This is another reminder that must be taken away from this disaster.”
The rising waters caused mudslides and, in one instance, a sudden mudslide at approximately 11:20 p.m. local time pushed the ICE 510 high-speed train, en route from Köln to Munich, off the rails close to Schwäbisch-Gmünd, simultaneously burying a car.
Rescue workers were able to evacuate the 185 passengers from the train without any injuries. The driver of the auto, Jürgen Seng of Lorch, was rescued after using his flashlight to signal his location to rescuer teams.
The section of the Danube River that runs through Regensburg continued to rise well into Monday. On Monday afternoon, the Danube’s level measured almost 20’ (6 m), twice as high as it had been Friday morning before the deluge began and emergency workers were hard at work building a fortified dam to prevent catastrophic damage.
While the extent of the flooding did not reach the proportions of the  Ahrtal flooding in 2021, the economic impact of the flooding showed its first signs.
Audi, headquartered in Ingolstadt, cancelled some production shifts on Monday as flooding disrupted worker commutes. Other companies saw similar impacts including EnBW, which put some hydro power plants out of operation. The Deutsche Bahn advised against travel.
The Ahrtal flooding resulted in €30 billion ($32.6 billion) in damage and only some of those costs were covered by insurance.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)