German Chancellor Angela Merkel in the district of Iversheim about the situation in the flood-affected area (Wolfgang Rattay/AP)Germany’s Cabinet has approved a roughly 400 million euro (£345.7 million) package of immediate aid for victims of last week’s floods and vowed to get started quickly on rebuilding the devastated areas. Finance minister Olaf Scholz said that the package, financed half by the federal government and half by Germany’s state governments, to help people deal with the immediate aftermath of the flooding will be expanded if more money is needed. Expand Close German finance minister Olaf Scholz (Luca Bruno/AP) / FacebookTwitterEmailWhatsapp German finance minister Olaf Scholz (Luca Bruno/AP)At least 171 people were killed in Germany when small rivers swelled quickly into raging torrents after persistent downpours last week, well over half of them in Ahrweiler county, near Bonn. Germany has recent experience with major floods that hit swathes of the country’s east in 2002 and 2013, causing extensive and costly damage. However, the death tolls were particularly high in last week’s floods, which were the worst in living memory in the areas they hit.

Source: Irish Independent July 21, 2021 09:45 UTC