Aerial photo taken on July 16, 2021 shows broken trees after floods in Verviers, Belgium.(Photo: Xinhua)

 

A woman walks past a tunnel filled with garbage after floods in Verviers, Belgium, July 16, 2021.(Photo: Xinhua)

 

People throw away broken furniture after floods in Verviers, Belgium, July 16, 2021.(Photo: Xinhua)

 
In his 40s, Laurent has never seen such a devastating scene in Verviers, a small town in Belgium's Wallonia region, where flash floods, triggered by torrential rains from Tuesday to Friday, swept away their normal life, leaving debris and mud.

"This is the first time that Mother Nature has wreaked havoc here," Laurent told Xinhua, as volunteers rushed to help in the town on the outskirts of Liege city, lending shopkeepers and local business owners a hand with clearing the damage.

"No one was prepared for this," he said.

As of Sunday, 31 people have died while 163 people are still missing due to the disaster, according to the Belgian Crisis Center.

Around 120 cities and towns across the country were affected by the floods and nearly 40,000 families have no access to electricity after days of torrential rains and burst rivers that were unseen in Belgium for almost 200 years.

The national crisis center confirmed that searches are still continuing in the affected areas but the rescue operations are basically over.

In Verviers, local residents cut a sad and desperate figure after floodwaters engulfed their homes and businesses.

They huddled in groups while frantically clearing away the damage in the aftermath of the floods, which dumped possessions into the tunnel that once connected the local high street to the city's outer perimeters.

In the river Meuse, a few cars were flipped over, while the streets surrounding the river were filled with debris and thick layers of mud.

"There is a link with climate change, we have to prepare our services for it," said Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo.

"We want to make sure that all insurance companies can work in the same way, so that people can be compensated as quickly as possible," he added.

The regional government of Wallonia has released 2.5 million euros (2.95 million U.S. dollars) in emergency aid to help the hardest-hit communities to pay for basic necessities in the first days after the floods.

A number of crowd funding actions have been started by private individuals to raise aid funds, while an emergency account has been opened via the Red Cross, where people can make donations to support the victims.

The Federal government has set a national day of mourning on July 20, on the eve of Belgium's National Day which falls on July 21.