DCrisis Team Affected by Floods Arweiler On the night of July 15 there was a major flood that destroyed the Ahr Valley. In addition to the information posted online, the regional administration also received several automated e-mails from the National Environmental Office that night, which reported a huge water level of nearly seven meters predicted. A spokesperson for the FAZ state office said that despite this, the area did not announce the disaster until late at night and did not start evacuating.
On the night of July 15, the water mass destroyed the Ahr Valley. 135 people were killed, 766 people were injured, and 59 people were unaccounted for. The flood caught most people by surprise. The forecast issued by the National Environment Office on the afternoon of July 14 far exceeded the so-called flood level of the century (3.7 meters) in 2016.
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In the evening, the state government office predicted that the water level would drop slightly during this period. The Ahrweiler District Administrator Jürgen Pföhler (CDU), who is in charge of disaster control, recently cited this brief correction to explain why there was no initial evacuation. However, soon after, the state government raised its forecast again. As FAZ now understands, it also notified the district administration at 9:26 pm that it expected the water level in Altenahr to reach 6.9 meters-which was more or less the case later. However, the disaster was not announced until 11pm and a partial evacuation was ordered. But by then the water mass was already too high.
On Friday, State Secretary of the Interior Roger Lewinz (SPD) stated that people can rely on the evening to “completely relax.” He himself was in the crisis team that night. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Interior pointed out that the management in charge of operations has always been in the regional administration, so only they can answer the question of why the evacuation was not carried out in advance. The district administrator Pföhler left several unanswered questions.
