AP’s Europe teams were quick to deliver exceptional, wide-ranging coverage in all formats as devastating floods left some 200 dead across Northern Europe. Sweeping stories and arresting visuals showed the scale and severity of the flooding while also capturing the human suffering and loss.
Berlin-based correspondent Frank Jordans recognized the scope of the unfolding tragedy, sending multiple alerts and urgent updates as the death toll began to rise. His stories reported on not only the developing story in Western Germany but also in Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Austria and Switzerland.
Jordans and fellow Berlin writer Geir Moulson continued to track the story over the coming days as the toll grew, while Brussels-based Raf Casert contributed a powerful piece examining the links to climate change. Highlighting the multinational impact of the disaster, Austrian freelance reporter Emily Schultheis crafted a dramatic story of close escapes, elegantly drawing on interviews collected by video crews in all the affected countries.
Live video was quickly established through a combination of partner feeds and our own video complement of Berlin’s Christoph Noelting, field producer Pietro di Cristofaro and senior field producer Dorothee Thiesing, Frankfurt producer Daniel Niemann, video journalist David Keyton in Paris, freelancer Eric Fux in Belgium and Aleks Furtula in the Netherlands. The Belgian and Dutch teams, headed by Western Europe News Director Angela Charlton, navigated closed roads and muddy terrain to reach the hardest-hit areas, reporting compelling personal stories amid the destruction. Fux found a family that spent a terrifying night on the roof of their destroyed home, waiting for rescue; Bram Janssen found a man in the southern Netherlands who lost decades of photo albums, magazines and valuable documents.
The swollen Ahr River flows past damaged homes in Insul, western Germany, July 15, 2021. The river broke over its banks the previous evening.
AP Photo / Michael Probst
People use rubber rafts in Liege, Belgium, July 15, 2021, after the Meuse River overflowed its banks.
AP Photo / Valentin Bianchi
Debris hangs from a damaged bridge over the Ahr River in Schuld, Germany, July 16, 2021, two days after the river flooded the area.
AP Photo / Michael Probst
A man surveys the debris of destroyed homes in Schuld, Germany, July 15, 2021. The Ahr River broke over its banks the previous evening.
AP Photo / Michael Probst
Two men check for victims in flooded cars on a road in Erftstadt, Germany, July 17, 2021.
AP Photo / Michael Probst
A man paddles a boat down a flooded residential street in the Angleur district of Liege, Belgium, July 16, 2021.
AP Photo / Valentin Bianchi
A woman climbs the stairs in her damaged house after flooding in Ensival, Vervier, Belgium, July 16, 2021.
AP Photo / Francisco Seco
People clean out a house after flooding in Ensival, Verviers, Belgium, July 16, 2021.
AP Photo / Francisco Seco
A woman reacts as she walks into her house, July 16, 2021, after flooding in the Angleur district of Liege, Belgium.
AP Photo / Valentin Bianchi
Homeowners push mud and water out of their house, July 16, 2021, after flooding in the Angleur district of Liege, Belgium.
AP Photo / Valentin Bianchi
A hotel owner sits on a crucifix in front of his flood-damaged building in Insul, southern Germany, July 15, 2021.
AP Photo / Michael Probst
A worker cleans out a supermarket, July 17, 2021, after flooding in Pepinster, Belgium.
AP Photo / Virginia Mayo
Wiel de Bie, 75, stands outside his flooded home in the town of Brommelen, Netherlands, July 17, 2021, in the southern Dutch province of Limburg.
AP Photo / Bram Janssen
Wedding photos float in a home’s flooded basement in Brommelen, Netherlands, Saturday, July 17, 2021, in the southern Dutch province of Limburg.
AP Photo / Bram Janssen
People take a break from cleaning flood debris in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, Germany, July 19, 2021.
AP Photo / Bram Janssen
Meanwhile, London producer Nadia Ahmed delivered a key user-generated video — among the many clips that saw heavy client usage — showing the moment a whole house was swept away by the torrents, snapping off a tree and smashing into a bridge.
Photos, both from the ground and from the air, revealed the extent of the damage. Spot coverage included work from Michael Probst and Janssen in Germany, and from Virginia Mayo, Francisco Seco and Valentin Bianchi in Belgium, with Mayo landing photos of a surprise visit by the president of the European Commission to one Belgian town. A striking photo gallery showed the devastation across Europe; AP’s photos were used by hundreds of customers, from The New York Times to Sky News.