In west Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands it has rained from 14. to 15.07.2021 as it had never before in my Lifetime (and before that). 180 mm in 48 hours in big parts of the country:

The result is a big catastrophe, that our part of the country hasn't seen since the last war.

Our Personal Situation

On the 14. of July my wife and me had a peaceful holiday in france. But I got the bad news about the heavy rain and called my son, who stayed at home for his first time.
When he said, "The water comes in, our cellar is drowning", my wife and me disrupted the holiday and drove home on the 15.7.

At home we have have "had luck". The water was "only" 67 cm high in the cellar. But it destroyed our washing dryer and a lot of other stuff:

The Situation of Eschweiler

Then my wife and me decided to go around by bike and take some pictures. We started on that part, where our (normaly small) creek comes from the fields:

This picture is from our damm. It has never been overflooded before. The maximal high was about the middle. Now it was not only overflooded but also surpassed on the sides:

But the horror started, when we followed the trace of destruction:
This is a neighbour street:

Behind the hedge is a big graveyard:

Then we reached the inner city.
This street is about one kilometer away from the river "Inde". Watch the watermark at the houses:

Beyound that we saw turned cars, but I didn't take more pictures because of the people, that, full of mud, carried out their stuff.
And then I realiesed with a shock, that I was standing in front of my aunt's house. My cousin was one of these mud-smeared people.
I was allowed to come in and take some pictures: