#roer

So, as typical for tumblr there's not really any attention for this, but the last couple of days there's been some very very major flooding in Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

I'm not talking tiny floods, I'm talking a 3-digit death toll, flooded towns, broken dykes, billions of euros in damages, mandatory evacuations. How? Heavy rain. There was about as much rain in a few hours as you'd normally have in like a months. The Ahr, Volme and Meuse/Maas and Geul and Roer rivers, just to name a few have burst their banks and flooded the surrounding areas.

So far Germany had been hit the hardest with landslides, ravaged towns and a 3-digit death toll. Belgium got away better but even there there are videos going around of rivers through towns, people on their roofs, awaiting evac. In the town of Maaseik (Belgium) there's only a flimsy brick wall and bags of sand holding back the water.

In both Belgium and Luxembourg there have been reports of unsafe drinking water.

Honestly, the Netherlands came away pretty lightly, but even then, the situation in the Limburg province has been declared an official disaster site by the government. Yesterday and the day before Valkenburg flooded and was unreachable for a while. A bridge even collapsed! Venlo and Roermond (two major cities) have been partially evacuated and Maastricht (province capitol) barely escaped the rising water, but barely.

Also, there's a hole in the dyke. I repeat, there's a hole in the dyke!

No seriously, I was just checking the news and it turns out that today one of the dykes in the province of Limburg (Meerssen to be exact) has broken. The surrounding towns are being evacuated right now.

This is crazy. This is the Netherlands we're talking about, best flood defenses in the world, for a flood to be able to puncture the dykes is a Major Feat and an indication this is some Heavy Shit.

Tbh, the river dykes haven't been built to the level of resilience of the sea dykes, but still.

Dating: July 16 2021, afternoon local time

Edit: here's a few liveblogs

NOS Liveblog [July 15] [July 16] (Netherlands) (Dutch)

Tagesschau Liveblog [July 15] [July 16] (German)

RTL Liveblog (Luxembourg) (English

VRT Liveblog [July 15] [July 16] (Belgium) (Dutch)

BBC Liveblog

Mérito de Martín Fernández

Rura

Rura is another native Dutch Goddess who was worshipped around what is now the modern day Dutch city of Roermond. Rura was most likely the Goddess of the river Roer, a side river of the Maas. This makes sense when you look at the name of the Goddess herself Rura, in German the river is called the Rur and the letter U in Latin is pronounced as OE. Evidence of her worship has been found near Roermond, a city which bears the same name as the same river.

In 1963, dredge workers found several pieces of stone dated back to the Roman era. Parts of an altar stone and fragments of a temple itself have been discovered. The Altar stone had a description on it: "SEX·OPSILIVS/GEMINVS/RVRAE/V·S·L·M". This can be written down in proper Latin like this: "Sex(tus) Opsilius Geminus Rurae V(otum) S(olvit) L(ibens M(erito)." This can be translated into a familiar sentence that we have seen before on other altar stones showing that a conduct/pact has been made with the Goddess Rura for some kind of blessing. "Sextus Opsilius Geminus has (therefore) fulfilled his vow to Rura, gladly and with good reason."

Judging by the materials of the found altar stone and the remains of the temple, it must have been built in the same style as Roman temples were build, once more showing how the Batavi elite were greatly influenced by Roman culture.

This Goddess might also be a lot older than the Germanic era. Younger Gods like the Asir, have certain abstract attributes like justice, war, magic and security while the older Vanir Gods have more primary needs as their abilities like: fertility, death, love, food, cold, warmth. The oldest form of spirituality on earth is animism, the believe that objects from nature have living spirits that interact with the planet like rocks, trees, rivers, seas etc.

Rura is a Goddess assigned to a specific river, she might be the personification of the Roer-spirit which might have been believed in since modern humans first stepped foot in this area. The Roer is not the only river to have its own deity, the river Rhine has her own deity as well and the Rhine river was seen as the place which was closest to the Germanic Gods. The Germanic people believed that praying on the banks of the river Rhine was the best way to speak to Donar/Thor directly. These local nature Gods/Goddesses certainly gives us food for thought.

「래핑 볼륨 블라우스」