Image: Polizei /dpa/picture allianceīefore the floods washed through the valley in the early hours of July 15, Altenahr was an idyllic town along a meandering river. After torrential rains caused the usually low Ahr River to swell and spill over its banks, there was nothing to hold it back from swamping the surrounding streets and towns.Īn aerial view of Altenahr, which is just south of Bonn in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, show the astonishing extent of the flooding. The town of Altenahr in the Ahr Valley was also hard hit by the floodwaters. Image: Rhein-Erft-Kreis/AP Photo/picture allianceĪ Google Earth image of Blessem before the floods show fields, a street, and houses where the ground has caved away. Buildings and parts of a castle collapsed into the open pit. The flooding was so extensive that a gravel quarry on the outskirts of the town filled with water while its edges expanded. Image: 2021 Google Mapsīlessem, a commuter-town in the Erftstadt district just west of Cologne, was completely shut down after the nearby Erft River submerged streets and houses, sending cars swimming away and turned trees into floating matchsticks. Image: Michael Probst/AP Photo/picture allianceīefore the floods, the village of 700 people was a quiet spot mostly frequented by hikers and a few motorcyclists on their way to the nearby Nürburgring. Tucked in a narrow valley in the Eifel region in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, Schuld was one of the first and hardest-hit by the floods. In the early hours of Thursday, the gentle meandering Ahr River turned into a huge racing current that overwhelmed the small village of Schuld.

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