‘Unimaginable’: Germany, Belgium remember deadly 2021 floods

By FRANK JORDANS and RAF CASERT
Associated Press
BERLIN (AP) — Germany and Belgium are commemorating the deadly floods that hit a year ago and warning that countries must improve climate disaster prevention plans. High-profile memorials took place Thursday to pay tribute to the more than 230 people who lost their lives on July 14-15, 2021. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeiner visited the Ahr valley, where at least 134 people died when heavy rain turned streams into raging torrents. At the memorial in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, the main town in Germany’s Ahr valley, the crowd held a minute of silence for the flood victims as church bells pealed and the victims’ first names were projected on a screen. In Belgium, King Philippe and Queen Mathilde met with survivors and relatives of some of the 39 people who died.