Half-destroyed bridges. Train tracks that end in the middle of nowhere. Abandoned ruins in one of the world’s richest countries.
The scars of last year’s deadly floods are still starkly visible in the Ahr valley, a hilly region south of Cologne that suffered more than half the deaths recorded in the disaster across Germany and neighboring Belgium and the Netherlands.
Official figures show 134 people died in the night from July 14-15, 2021, when heavy rains turned swollen streams into raging torrents that burst their banks and swept away cars, roads and houses. The total death toll across the three countries was at least 239.
Experts say such extreme weather events are becoming more likely because of climate change. That’s because warmer air can store more water, leading to bigger cloudbursts when it's released.
German authorities agreed to provide 30 billion euros ($30 billion) to help rebuild regions hit by the floods, making it one of the costliest natural...
