Germany’s floods fill opera house with ‘one and a half metres’ of water

19 July 2021, 11:29

Wuppertal Opera House’s orchestra pit is filled with water, as heavy rainfall and floods devastate German cultural buildings.

An opera house in the North Rhine-Westaphalia region of western Germany has been hit by the country’s flooding crisis.

The entire lower stage and orchestra pit at Wuppertal Opera House is now filled with “one and a half meters of water” following heavy rainfall on the evening of Wednesday 14 July.

At 9pm, the Wupper and Bever dams were seen to be filling up extremely quickly.

The dams had overflowed by 11pm, and that night, the water began to flood around the opera house.

Official have expressed fears of “considerable damage to private and public buildings” in the region.

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The Wuppertal Opera House, which opened in 1905, mostly houses performances of operas.

It also hosts dance performances by the region’s Tanztheater Wuppertal company.

Draining is currently taking place at the two dams amid concerns for residents in North Rhine-Westaphalia, which is among the worst hit by the extreme weather.

Intense rainfall and floods have claimed the lives of at least 45 people in the west German state.

More than 150 people across Germany have died in the floods, which scientists say are happening more frequently because of global warming.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the world had to “be faster in the battle against climate change”.