We suddenly heard a rushing（冲） sound and then I saw cars floating（漂浮） through the village. It's crazy what kind of damage the water did in less than an hour. Wednesday evening we were hit by a flood, bigger than we could have imagined. We knew about how high the water would be but had no idea what that meant. Seven meters, we had no sense of what would happen. The water in the Aar river kept rising, slowly.

  Our long-time residents（居民） said everything was still fine. We got sandbags and we stacked（堆积） them up, 50 centimeters high. We said, well, that will do it. The water rose very slowly. And then within five minutes it started pouring in from every corner. From all around us, not just the Aar river, it came from behind us too, everywhere.

  All we could do was grab（攫取） the dog, whatever we had in our hands, and go upstairs. And hope that the water wouldn't reach the top floor. Our lovely Aarweiler, I can't believe it. How could the Aar river do this to us? How could God do this to us? Fierce（凶猛的） floods sweep（扫） through Germany with catastrophic（灾难的） consequences.

  Rivers burst（使爆裂） their banks after relentless（无情的） rains. Water races down small-town roads inundating（淹没） entire（全部的） areas. Dozens（一打） of people have died, including two firefighters（消防队员）. Many more are missing. Hundreds of thousands of homes are without power. Helicopter crews（全体船员） have lifted stranded（使搁浅） villagers（乡村居民） to safety.

  We had renovated（更新） and modernized（ 使现代化)） the house from the ground up, added another story on top. It was all new. Underfloor heating, tiling, the bathroom, kitchen, all new. And then a few days ago, the flood hit. It was so fast, we didn't even have time to rescue（营救） our valuables. We spent 24 hours up on the top floor.

  The firefighters came and asked us, "Are you all right? Okay, you'll have to make do for a while." We couldn't leave the house. The water was just high. But we're alive. So many people died. It's hard to believe.

  It's hard to imagine what happened here. We probably haven't seen as much as the people who live a bit further away and saw the images taken from the helicopter. But from what we've heard, all the way to the Rhine River, everything's underwater（水下）. It's a lovely town, Arweiler. It was. We love our town and know it's destroyed.

  I can't even describe how horrible it is. There's no way to clean this up by hand on our own. We're hardworking people, but just a day ago I was thinking about weeding. Now the garden's gone. I'm not sure we can fix this. It will take years.

  What has God done to us? The worst flooding in decades has killed at least 150 people in Europe. Most of the deaths are in western Germany. The disaster area stretches（伸展） between the districts（区） of Heinzberg, Erfstadt and Arweiler near the border with the Netherlands（荷兰（西欧国家）） and Belgium. A massive（厚重的） cleanup operation is underway as rescue（营救） crews（全体船员） search for survivors. More than a thousand are still missing.

  I'd just like to tell people that I'm all right. And I'd ask anyone who's not all right, if there's anyone we could contact. We have no electricity, no water, internet or mobile data（资料）. Phones don't work. I don't know who's been affected. And if there's anywhere I could help.

  It's a tough（坚韧的） situation, but what can we do but get to work? It's a tough situation, but what can we do but get to work? It's a tough situation, but what can we do but get to work? It's a tough situation, but what can we do but get to work? How are we supposed to cope（对付） with all of this mud? I have no idea.

  You've heard what it's like. It's everywhere. And the city isn't helping us at all. We've heard nothing from them yet. We're not going to do anything. It's a tough situation.

  It's a tough situation, but what can we do but get to work? It's a tough situation. It's a tough situation. But what can we do but get to work? It's a tough situation. It's a tough situation.

  It's a tough situation, but what can we do but get to work? It's a tough situation, but what can we do but get to work? It's a tough situation, but what can we do but get to work? We drove here yesterday. It took six hours. Then we got set up.

  There's a police escort（护卫(队)）. They got us set up with permission to come into the disaster zone（地区）. It was utter（完全的） chaos（混乱）. Tractors, but no coordination（协调）. So we tried to bring some structure into things, to coordinate（使协调） things.