Status: 07/20/2021 7:19 a.m.
Roads, railroad tracks, bridges, cell phone masts, electricity and gas lines have been destroyed in the flood areas. According to media reports, initial estimates by the Federal Ministry of Transport assume damage amounting to almost two billion euros.
According to media reports, the damage caused by the flood disaster is almost two billion euros, according to initial estimates by the Federal Ministry of Transport. According to information from the dpa news agency and the “Bild” newspaper, damage of around 1.3 billion euros is said to have occurred in the Deutsche Bahn rail network and at the stations. Many stretches were affected and some up to 25 kilometers in length were undermined by the water masses.
But there is also great destruction on the streets and highways. There, too, according to internal surveys, the damage was in the range of several hundred million euros.
Task force in the Ministry of Transport
According to a spokesman for Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer (CSU), a task force in the ministry is working to complete the existing picture of the situation. At the same time, as far as possible, a damage assessment should be carried out in order to determine the likely costs of repairing the damage and to immediately start the reconstruction of the destroyed and damaged infrastructures. To this end, the need for further action is identified and prioritized in individual working groups for road, rail, waterways and digital infrastructures.
By Monday the death toll had risen to at least 164: 117 were confirmed from Rhineland-Palatinate and 47 from North Rhine-Westphalia. In both federal states, it was not ruled out that further victims could be found.
Rail traffic further restricted
The disruptions to rail traffic in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate will probably continue for a longer time. According to the Deutsche Bahn, tracks are more than 600 kilometers long. According to this, an initial picture of the situation revealed “massive damage to more than 80 stations and stops, tracks over 600 kilometers in length, switches, signaling technology, signal boxes, bridges and vehicles used in regional, S-Bahn and freight traffic”. However, there is still no comprehensive picture of the situation.
We are working at full speed to record all damage. An initial balance sheet could only be drawn in the coming days – because water still has to drain off in many places, and then mud and rubble have to be removed.
The motorways are also still affected. The A1 in the direction of Koblenz is fully closed between the Köln-West motorway junction and the Erfttal motorway triangle. The A1 in the direction of Dortmund between the Erfttal motorway triangle and the Hürth junction is also fully closed.
There is still a bottleneck on the A1 in the direction of Koblenz between the Cologne-Lövenich and Cologne-Bocklemünd junctions. On the A61 there is a full closure in both directions between the Kerpen and Meckenheim motorway junctions in almost all sections. The blocks could possibly be necessary for months.
Radio stations cut off from the network
The cellular network is also still patchy in the affected areas. The mobile operator Vodafone stated that a sixth of the radio stations were still cut off from the network. Many locations were severely damaged or completely destroyed by the flood. Vodafone said it was hopeful that basic services could be restored in the entire disaster area this week.