SpaceX's Starlink is helping people connect in flood-hit Germany

Europe is amidst one of the worst floods it has seen in recent times and Germany among other places is affected badly by it. To help, the Supervision and Services Directorate of Rhineland-Palatinate has announced today that it has deployed a dozen SpaceX's Starlink satellite dishes in the state's Ahrweiler district. It is hoped that the availability of internet service will help the affected people there connect and communicate with others as well as with those in authority. The Directorate has also assured that 23 more such dishes, for a total of 35, would also be set up over the course of time.

The following 11 places in Ahrweiler already have the dishes planted:

• Liers
• Ahrbrück
• Brück
• Pützfeld
• Kreuzberg
• Rech Nord
• Rech Süd
• Dernau
• Marienthal
• Heimersheim
• Heppingen

As stated above, the state of Rhineland-Palatinate is one of the worst-affected regions and parts of it have been hit with 148 liters of rain /sq meter, which is nearly double that of what it is generally used to. You can find the original announcement of the Supervision and Services Directorate of Rhineland-Palatinate here.

The German government may have had the foresight of the events to come as earlier this year it had decided to subsidize households that would help them to purchase the necessary equipment like those from Starlink's which would enable satellite internet options. The scheme was announced by the government so as to improve rural wireless internet connectivity throughout the country.