The inconceivable has happened. Floods have inundated（淹没） the Eiffel region. Help! We're drowning（淹死） here. Can anyone hear us? We need help.

  We need heavy equipment. People have been uprooted（ 连根拔起）. This is just chaos（混乱）. And then I stood（站立） up there and watched as my entire（全部的） life disappeared within half an hour. It pains me to say this, but things will never be the same again. The ar normally flows through this small valley as a small river.

  Seeing it from up here, you understand how this valley can flood very quickly when there's such extremely heavy rainfall. Here, where there are loops（环） and curves（曲线）, it's effectively flooded entire villages. The disaster is worse than anyone could imagine. It's the morning after the flood in the small village of Schult on the Ar. Schult has over a one thousand year history and has survived several wars. Now it's been devastated（毁坏） by weather, largely（主要地） swept（扫） away by the flood.

  What remains is rubble（碎石） and fear. Many residents（居民） are deeply（深刻地） shaken, including those who've experienced a lot in their lives. I've lived here for 80 years and I've never seen anything like this. Small floods, sure, but nothing this extreme（极端）. The entire village is in a state of shock（ 震动）. Houses have been destroyed.

  Cars washed away. In this municipality of just under 700 residents, the fire department has been working（使工作） around the clock. The rescue（营救） workers are doing all they can, but the situation is worse than anything they've seen before. Really terrible. I've been with the fire department for 50 years. We often get floods, but nothing this bad.

  The Ar has swept away anything that stood in its path. The river, which is normally less than a meter deep here, swelled to a monstrous（巨大的） depth（[海洋] 深度） of almost eight meters. Residents barely（几乎不） had time to react. It happened so quickly. We were glad we could get out of the house. We were able to carry a few things up to the first floor.

  Our neighbor lives a bit higher up and he gave us shelter（隐蔽处） for the night. We heard loud bangs, that was the gas tanks（坦克）. It's just awful. Look here behind us. There used to be two houses standing there. You can see how many houses have been destroyed.

  We have no idea what will happen. The flood destroyed houses, streets and a sense of security. All of that simply washed away. The local mayor（市长） says that despite the many precautions（预防） taken by the fire department, the village simply couldn't be protected. When a flood this size comes this quickly, there's nothing they can do. They can put out a fire, but water is a force to be reckoned（ 推断） with.

  Everything was washed away. The community hall we just finished renovating is gone. Six houses were swept away. Many buildings remain standing, but it's unclear how safe they are. This really pulls the rug（小地毯） out from under you. A river that's normally 60 centimeters deep, swelling to 8 meters within a few hours.

  That's extreme. What caused the flooding? We meet with geographer（地理学者） and meteorologist（ 气象学者） Martin Good. He's been studying extreme weather conditions for decades. There was a low-pressure system which was basically（基本上） stationary（固定的）. What happens in these systems is that there's a battle between warm and cold.

  The warm air is like the energy mass（块） because it's where moisture is held. The cold air acts like a trigger（扳机）. The warm air effectively loses the battle because it has to rise. And to do so, it needs to expel（驱逐） weight in the form of precipitation（仓促）. And unfortunately, it did this continuously over one region. Parts of Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia, and in never-before-seen volumes（卷）.

  A few kilometers downriver lies the town of Inzul. The "R" struck（打） with full force here, too. A stone bridge is gone. It couldn't withstand（抵挡） the current（（水）. The Stolenberg family are clearing their house and yard, although they know they may not be able to save their home. Heating oil leaked（漏） in the basement（ 地下室）.

  The unexpected（想不到的） flood has left them devastated（毁坏）. Where do you put all of this stuff? Our house stinks（发出臭味） of heating oil because we have oil tanks（坦克）. You can't breathe. There's oil everywhere outside. My car is ruined（毁灭）.

  And God, He drove His out, so it still works. But this is just chaos. These images from Antweiler show the force with which the "R" river swept through the valley. Vehicles bobbing in the flood water. The consequences were devastating. At the time of filming, the flood has left more than 90 people dead in the Arveiler district（区） alone, with many more still missing（未击中）.

  Infrastructure（基础设施） has collapsed（倒塌）. In many areas, power supplies and phone connections remain disrupted（破坏）. There's no drinking water. Emergency services are having a hard time reaching people. Often, they put their own lives at risk. These firefighters（消防队员） managed to escape just in time.

  Mikhail Lang posted a video of what he saw online. People, you have no idea what happened here in the Arveiler. I'm not sure you can see it, but down there is the building I've been renovating（更新） for half a year. The building right next door, that's half gone. The family are sitting on the roof, waiting for help. If we look at the shape of the valleys, we see that they are V-shaped（形成） with a flattened base.

  They were created over hundreds or thousands of years by water. The shapes had to be formed by something, and usually that something was a catastrophic（灾难的） flood. It wasn't gradual（逐渐的） erosion（腐蚀） by a calm, steadily（平稳地） flowing river. No, the shaping of the valley and the landfill was caused by catastrophic floods. But we only experienced severe（严格的） flooding every few hundreds of years. So as cynical（愤世嫉俗的） as this sounds, that made us forget that we haven't been building in a friendly place for the past decades.

  We've been living in a sometimes hostile（敌对的） place. This is Bad Neuenar Arveiler on July 15. In all, four districts in northern Rhineland, Platonaut have declared（断言） a state of emergency. Firefighters, as well as volunteers from the Federal Relief（减轻） Agency（经办） THW and other aid（帮助） organizations have come from all over Germany to help. Rhineland-Platonaut State Premier Marlou Dreyer and Germany's Finance（财政） Minister（部长） Olaf Scholz also visit the disaster zone（地区） to see the damage for themselves and speak to locals. People are still missing.

  Hopefully they are with friends or family and manage to flee（ 逃走） in time. But right now we can't exclude（排除） the worst case scenario（方案）. There are still people sitting in trees and on roofs. The state will provide 50 million euros in emergency aid for repairing the region's infrastructure.