The German Weather Service (DWD) has forecast heavy rain next Saturday and Sunday in areas hit by last weekend’s storms, with flooding killing at least 125 people, according to the latest report.
DWD says “storms” can “happen” on Saturday afternoon and could expand into areas of the Rhineland-Palatinate through the end of the same day.
And the last official tally indicated, on Wednesday, that 125 people were killed by the floods caused by rains last weekend, in the western region of Germany. In total, 174 people died across the country due to the bad weather.
In Belgium, torrential rains and floods killed 31 people.
German authorities have set up a base for relief teams at a motorsports facility in the Nürburgring.
More than 4,500 civil protection, fire and army personnel have been deployed to the worst-affected places in the Rhineland-Palatinate.
However, Chancellor Angela Merkel reiterated the call for increased measures against global warming.
“Comparing the targets for values below 2 or even 1.5 degrees of progress is not enough,” Merkel said at a news conference in Berlin.
“This concerns not only Germany but also several countries. That is why the pace must be accelerated,” he said.
On Sunday, Angela Merkel had already called for “the fight against climate change” during a visit to Szold, in the Rhineland-Palatinate state.
The city has been particularly affected by the floods that have engulfed Germany and part of Europe since last week.
“Society is undergoing profound changes,” Angela Merkel said for the last time at the traditional summer press conference in Berlin, before the end of her term.
The chancellor, who has been in power since 2005, will step down after the September 26 elections.
When asked about climate measures, Merkel noted that Germany had set targets in May to reduce greenhouse gases.
Berlin aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 65% by 2030, compared to 1990 figures, with a goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2045.
The German government was forced to raise the targets after it rejected in April a preliminary climate plan that the Constitutional Court deemed “too unambitious”.
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