Germany floods: Scholz visits hard-hit areas

Visiting the flooded regions in southern Germany, Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned that "we can't neglect the task of stopping man-made climate change."

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Due to the threat of another dam breaking in southern Germany, local officials in Asbach-Bäumenheim ordered the residents of Hamlar on the Donau River to leave their homes as quickly as possible.

"As a result of continuing volumes of water and the softening of the dam, it is necessary to conduct an evacuation of the entire area of Hamlar," the municipality said in a press release. "The population is requested to leave the Hamlar area immediately, as there's reason to fear it will be surrounded by water."

The statement called on residents to remain calm, pack essential items and paperwork into bags and to follow the advice of emergency services. 

A reception point was being set up at an event venue in the larger nearby settlement of Asbach-Bäumenheim for "anyone who cannot organize private accommodation," the local authorities said.

The area is roughly an hour's drive north of Munich.

Rescue workers found two bodies in the basement of a building in the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg.

The flooded basement was in the town of Schorndorf in the Rems-Murr district northeast of the state capital, Stuttgart.

This raises the number of confirmed deaths from the latest flooding emergency in southern Germany to four.

Also on Monday, the body of a 43-year-old woman was found in a cellar of a building in the town of Schrobenhausen in the southeastern state of Bavaria.

Over the weekend,a 42-year-old firefighter died after his rubber dinghy capsized in Bavaria's Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm.

People in Germany need to adapt to increasingly frequent floods, the premier of the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg, Winfried Kretschmann, said.

"We have to expect that we'll get something like this more often," he said, referring to a recent bout of flooding affecting southern Germany.

He made the statement during a visit to the heavily flood-affected municipality of Meckenbeuren in the south of the state.

Kretschmann said that the increased frequency of flooding seemed to be a consequence of climate change.

He said that — in this instance — Baden-Württemberg had gotten off lightly compared to the neighboring state of Bavaria.

At the same time, Baden-Württemberg's premier stressed that the situation in the north of the state was still "extremely precarious."

A passenger ship on the Danube has been evacuated due to flooding, authorities in Germany's southeastern state of Bavaria said.

A spokesperson for the council of the Deggendorf district said that 140 people were evacuated.

The vessel could not travel any further due to the high water level, she said.

None of the passengers were harmed in the incident.

Also on Monday, district council head Bernd Sibler declared Deggendorf was facing a major emergency due to the flooding.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has pledged federal support for those affected by flooding in southern Germany.

During a visit to the town of Reichertshofen in the southeastern state of Bavaria, Scholz said solidarity is "what we as people most need."

He was accompanied by Interior Minister Nancy Faeser and Bavarian Premier Markus Söder.

"We will do everything we can ... to ensure that help can be provided more quickly," he said, adding that the federal government will mobilize resources to that effect.

Scholz said that people in Germany must increasingly adapt to natural disasters, especially floods.

He warned against neglecting the "task of stopping man-made climate change."

"This is also a warning that must be taken away from this event and this disaster," he said.

Parts of Germany's Rhine River have been closed to ships due to heavy rainfall, authorities said.

"Shipping is suspended along the Upper Rhine," a spokesperson of the German waterway authority told the Reuters news agency. "Critical water levels were exceeded here."

The Middle Rhine, which runs between the western German cities of Bonn and Mainz, could also be closed on Wednesday.

"However, according to the current prognosis this [closure] will not last very long," the spokesperson said.

Water levels of the Rems and Murr rivers in southern Germany continue to rise despite subsiding rain, authorities said.

"Even though it is currently not heavily raining, we are still expecting an increase in the waterline of the Rems and Murr," Dietmar Allgaier, who is the head of the Ludwigsburg district council in the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg, said.

The Rems is yet to reach its highest point in the town of Remseck, he said.

Meanwhile, residents of a nursing home in the town of Steinheim an der Murr, also in the district of Ludwigsburg, were evacuated from the premises on Monday due to flooding.

German emergency services have found the body of a 43-year-old woman who went missing on Sunday in the cellar of a flooded building in the town of Schrobenhausen in the southeastern state of Bavaria.

This is the second reported death from the latest bout of flooding in Germany.

On Sunday, a firefighter was found dead in the Bavarian town of Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm after his rubber dinghy capsized during rescue operations.

A dam on the Paar River in the Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm district of Bavaria has suffered three breaches, local officials said.

The Paar is a tributary of the Danube.

The district council told residents in the municipalities of Baar-Ebenhausen and Manching to leave the ground floor of their homes and to seek refuge in higher levels.

Some 800 people were taken to safety in Baar-Ebenhausen and 250 people were sheltering at a school in the city of Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm.

The council said that around 4,000 emergency workers and Bundeswehr soldiers were active in the district.

Rescue workers are still looking for a firefighter who went missing during an operation in flood-stricken southern Germany.

The firefighter had been on a rubber dinghy that capsized near the municipality of Offingen in the southeastern state of Bavaria. It lies around 100 kilometers (62 miles) northwest of the state capital, Munich.

Four emergency workers managed to reach land unharmed after the dinghy was hit by a strong current and capsized.

Police said authorities were using two helicopters in the search, which could not be deployed overnight due to extreme weather conditions.

A woman in the town of Schrobenhausen north of Munich was also still missing on Monday.

On Sunday, a firefighter was killed after his rubber dinghy capsized in the Bavarian town of Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm.

The German Weather Service (DWD) has issued a severe weather warning for the southwestern town of Tübingen, in the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg. 

The DWD said people could be affected by heavy rain, flooded roads and possible landslides, advising residents to avoid hard-hit areas and take preventative measures.

Although the DWD had canceled all severe weather warnings, it said the situation worsened in some areas in Baden-Württemberg. 

Gerda Hasselfeldt, the president of the German Red Cross (DRK), said Germany "has a lot of catching up to do" when it comes to civil protection. 

"The recent floods underline the importance of strong civil protection in Germany," Hasselfeldt told the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper. "We, therefore, need an epochal shift, especially when it comes to the sustainable and future-oriented financing of civil protection."

Hasselfeldt's remarks echoed the demands of several local authorities, with the Bavarian Association of Municipalities calling for "a new strategy" in light of the challenges posed by extreme weather events.

Markus Söder, Bavaria's state premier, said he expects flooding to continue until Wednesday or Thursday.

"It is is receding somewhat," Söder told Deutschlandfunk radio, noting that even if the rain stopped, the water levels of the larger rivers would remain a threat. 

Söder called on residents to follow evacuation instructions.

"The water rises very, very quickly and [it] is simply dangerous," he warned in remarks to public broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk. "The most important thing is to protect life," he said, adding that the situation was "serious and critical" in many places. 

With "enormous financial damage" expected, the Bavarian leader called for help from the federal government. 

"The water may not stay for long, but the damage is long-lasting and enormous," he said.

Söder also said insurance for property owners against natural disasters should be compulsory, adding that he would bring up the topic at the next state premiers' meeting.  

"Because we can't always simply cover these damages by the state," he said. 

According to Söder, German state leaders are "very, very united on this," but the federal government "is stalling."

The Bavarian city of Regensburg has declared a state of emergency after the water level in the Danube River reached 5.8 meters (19 feet).

According to the Bavarian Flood Information Service, the river was continuing to rise, reaching 5.9 meters at Regensburg by 7 a.m. local time (0500 UTC/GMT).

On Tuesday last week, the average level there was around 2.7 meters. 

Regensburg, which lies north of Munich, is the latest of several cities in Bavaria to declare a state of emergency following days of unrelenting rain.

Authorities said water levels in many of the Danube's tributaries had already peaked and were starting to drop, but that has led to more flooding in the Danube itself.

The German Weather Service has forecast more showers south of the Danube, with thunderstorms expected later on Monday.