One of the places in Germany hardest hit by the flooding was tiny Schuld, where the sheer speed with which the destruction arrived shocked many in the once-tidy village of half-timbered houses decorated with geranium-filled flower boxes. After the river swelled late Wednesday, carrying vehicles bobbing like bath toys, six houses collapsed entirely, and half of those that remained standing had gaping holes torn by floating debris, now piled in a jumble in the streets. “It went so fast. You tried to do something and it was already too late,” a resident of Schuld told Germany’s ARD public television after some were allowed to return late Thursday to survey the wreckage. As the waters rose, patrons at a small hotel in the village of Insul, near Schuld, asked dining room employees if they needed to be worried, Erika Stollenwerk, who works in the kitchen, told ARD television.

Source: New York Times July 16, 2021 14:03 UTC