At least four dead in floods in southern Germany – situation remains critical

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The death toll from floods ravaging much of southern Germany rose to four on Monday after three bodies were recovered from flooded cellars, while authorities warned that water levels could rise further in the coming days.

The body of a 43-year-old woman, whom rescue workers had been searching for since Sunday morning, was found in a basement in Schrobenhausen, Bavaria, police told the German press.

Later on Monday, police said the bodies of a man and a woman had been found in a basement in Schorndorf, near Stuttgart, that had been flooded and then drained.

Persistent, heavy rainfall led to widespread flooding in the southern federal states of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg over the weekend. The flooding caused extensive traffic disruptions. On Monday, long-distance rail connections to Munich from the north and west were impassable.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited the flood-affected region as part of a trip to Reichertshofen, north of Munich, where he inspected a river bank secured with sandbags and met with regional representatives, including Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder.

Söder said the situation was “still critical and tense.” In some places the water was receding, but elsewhere there were new floods and evacuations. He noted that rising water levels were to be expected in the city of Regensburg and further down the Danube.

Scholz said that this was not a one-off event, as had been the case for centuries. A series of recent floods showed that “we cannot neglect the task of stopping man-made climate change.”