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This gives only a very poor impression of the flood catastrophe which struck northwest Rhineland-Palatine and southwest Northrhine-Westphalia on July 15, 2021.

POV is at Sinzig standing on the old bridge which connects Sinzig and Remagen. The bridge is prone to collapse and only open to pedestrians and bikers. All other nearby bridges have collapsed. The only way out to the north is by A61 autobahn bridge.

Ahr river has a gauge of 0.5 to 1.0 m on normal summer days. For the highest high water of the past decades, it was up to 3.7 m.
The value for July 15 exceeded 5.75 m (when the gauge was destroyed), is supposed to have gone up to 7.50 , and some even named 8.80 m.

The present info is that we had more than 150 casualties. 12 persons drowned asleep in the local residence for handicapped. There was no chance to get them out in time. Several hundred people are still missing. Mobile phones do not work in most of the floodstricken areas.

Panorama capture from the same POV as yesterday's post.

My family lives in a side valley 40 m above Ahr level and had no damage at all.

To be continued...