At Least 4 Dead as Heavy Rains Trigger Severe Flooding in Germany

Eric Chaney
Published: May 31,2016

At least 4 people are likely dead as a result of heavy rains in Germany that triggered severe flooding.
In Schwaebisch Gmuend, a firefighter and a man he was trying to rescue were sucked into a flooded underpass. Both men were presumed dead, though their bodies hadn't yet been recovered Monday, police said.
"As far as we can humanly judge, both are dead," a spokesman for the state interior ministry in Stuttgart told the Sydney Morning Herald.
"In the last week southern Germany has seen 400+ percent of its average rainfall," said weather.com meteorologist Jonathan Belles. "It appears that Schwaebisch Gmuend is in a valley, so that may have played a roll in that water may have pooled in the valley."
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The body of a third victim was found in a flooded garage in Weissbach near the city of Heilbronn. And in Schorndorf, near Stuttgart, a train fatally struck a 13-year-old girl as she sheltered from the rain under a railway bridge Sunday evening.
A 12-year-old boy who was with her was unharmed, but is receiving psychiatric support after the incident, the Morning Herald reported.
In the small town of Braunsbach, two streams burst their banks, unleashing floodwaters that destroyed one house, damaged several others and left streets strewn with debris.
Much of Germany experienced heavy rainstorms over the weekend. The heavy downpours also affected the state of Bavaria in the southeast, causing severe damage to properties in the area of Mittelfranken, where Nuremberg is situated.
Several residents in the Bavarian town of Frankenhoehe described the scenes to the Morning Herald as "like after the war".
Martin Jonas, a meteorologist at the German Weather Service, told the paper the unusually slow movement of the rainstorms had led to the severe flooding.
"The unusual thing about yesterday was that we were in a situation of relatively low pressure," Jonas said. "For that reason, the intensive downpours stayed above the same areas for a relatively long time.