Flooding in Germany inundates roads, villages

Rivers in western Germany are overflowing their banks due to pouring rain and melting snow, flooding many roads and parts of several villages. Authorities in Rhineland-Palatinate, the worst-hit state, said Sunday the wine towns of Cochem and Zell along the Mosel River were partly inundated and dozens of basements had filled up with water.
German news agency DAPD reported that the Rhine River had also dangerously swollen and many roads in the Rhine Valley were closed. Part of the city of Konstanz was inundated and commercial shipping was banned on the Rhine up to the city of Cologne.
DAPD, however, quoted meteorologists in Trier as saying the swelling of the Mosel, a tributary of the Rhine, was not unusual and was likely to pass without causing major damage.