Germany is asking itself how one of the wealthiest countries in the world managed to be surprised by the extreme weather event last week, as more details about how early warnings of record rainfall and expected floods failed to reach the most at-risk communities emerged water surface.
In Erftstadt, south of Cologne, a flooded gravel quarry engulfed cars, houses and parts of a historic castle. On Wednesday, residents who had installed the federal government’s weather warning app were advised to stay at home.
By Thursday, they were told that a nearby dam was in danger of rupturing, putting them in “extreme danger”.
However, in the Ahrweiler region of Rhineland-Palatinate, at least 117 people died after rainwater collected in the mountains around Eifel last Wednesday washed several villages. Nina warned that the app did not issue a similar warning , The German news agency DPA reported on Monday.
Although the European Flood Warning System (Efas) issued specific warnings to the worst-hit areas in Germany four days before the start of the downpour, the subsequent flash floods still seemed to surprise most residents.
Professor Hannah Cloke, a hydrologist at the University of Reading, founded and advised Efas. Tell Politico The death toll is “a huge failure of the system”.
The Minister of the Interior Horst Seehofer dismissed claims that federal officials had made mistakes and said that the warning had been passed on to local authorities that “made decisions on disaster protection.”
Herbert Ruhr, the interior minister of the state of West North Rhine-Westphalia where 47 people died, admitted that the early warning system was not working efficiently, but said that he did not think the system had any fundamental problems.
A spokesperson for the Ruhr Ministry said on Monday that it had issued a warning to relevant local municipalities.
The head of the German Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance seems to have shifted the responsibility to the local authorities. “The alert infrastructure itself is not our problem, but a question of how sensitive public authorities and people are to their reactions,” said Armin Shuster, the agency’s president.
Schuster told the broadcaster Deutschlandfunk that digital warnings, such as through warning apps, text messages or emails, do not always reach everyone at risk. Instead, he called for an investment plan to increase the number of flood alarms in areas where more floods are likely to occur in the next few years.
Since the National Emergency Warning Day last year, disaster aid agencies have been facing scrutiny. This is the first trial operation of the country’s early warning infrastructure since its reunification in 1991. Estimated to run for 20 minutes, Events on September 10, 2020 Designed to showcase all functions from alarms to smartphone push notifications.
On the contrary, the warning day shows the gaps in the current system. After the nationwide push has overloaded the system, many people delayed or did not receive push alerts at all.
Annalena Belbok, a candidate for the Green Party’s prime minister, told Der Spiegel in September this year that the appropriate response to the catastrophic floods is a “national tripartite effort” involving a more concentrated disaster management system and realigning cities and rivers. Designed to respond to more extreme weather events and increase climate protection.
“We need to reinvent disaster management,” Baerbock said. “The federal government needs to take more responsibility for this.”
With the drop in water levels, the extent of damage to towns and villages in western Germany has been exposed, and residents worry that they may not have access to electricity and drinking water for a few months.
In Ahrweiler, there are currently about 30,000 people without electricity, water and gas. After the flash flood on Wednesday, Destroyed the sewage system, tore a major natural gas pipeline, and brought the purification plant to a standstill.
Cornelia Weigand, the mayor of the town of Altenahr, told Bild: “It seems that the infrastructure has been severely damaged and some places have no drinking water for weeks or months”.
“It is clear that our community will look very different in the end, because the buildings that have defined the area for more than 50, 100 or 150 years will have to be demolished.”
According to local media reports on Monday, even the water towers in parts of the area that have not suffered the worst flooding have dried up and must be refilled by tank trucks or repairing abandoned wells and installing mobile water treatment devices.
The German Red Cross has shipped two 7,000 liters (1,500 gallons) and four 3,800 liters of drinking water tanks to the area.
The Koblenz-based energy supplier EVM said it is still determining how many households in Ahrweiler do not have natural gas, which is used to heat water and households in the area, but the damage to its supply system is “serious”.
