Heavy rains wreaked havoc on Saturday evening (24) in the Belgian province of Namur, ten days after historic flooding left dozens of people dead in the country and in Germany. This time, however, there were no casualties.
The city of Dinant has been hit by the biggest floods in decades, in a storm so severe that it surprised more than one.
“I have lived in Dinant for 57 years and have never seen anything like it,” said Richard Fournaux, former mayor of the town bordering the Meuse and the birthplace of the 19th century saxophone inventor Adolphe Sax.
Rainwater gushing from the steep streets swept away dozens of cars, piled them at an intersection and washed away cobblestones, sidewalks and swaths of asphalt, while residents stared in horror out of windows.
There was no precise estimate of the damage, with city officials predicting only that it would be “significant”, according to Belgian television RTL.
Heavy rains have hit 11 towns in the Meuse Valley since nightfall on Saturday, where impressive torrents of water have formed, reminiscent of the flood images of July 14 and 15.
The storm caused similar damage, also without killing, in the small town of Anhée, a few kilometers north of Dinant.
However, the spokesperson for the national crisis center, Antoine Iseux, clarified that the situation was “in no way comparable” to that of the recent floods, unprecedented in the history of the country.
These rains mainly affected the Liège region and Eastern Wallonia, the French-speaking part of Belgium, and killed 36 people.