The British scientist Hannah Cloke raises serious allegations against the German civil protection. The co-developer of the European flood warning system speaks in the London “Sunday Times” of «monumental system failure». The federal government and the German disaster control system share responsibility for the devastating consequences of the flood, according to the professor of hydrology at Reading University.
A “monumental failure of the system” led to one of the greatest catastrophes of the post-war period in Germany, according to Cloke. “Especially in the cities, people were washed away. That suggests a lot of things are going wrong. People should have received warnings, ”explains the scientist. “People should have understood the warnings. There’s no point in having massive computer models that predict what will happen if people don’t know what to do when there is a flood. “
Because that is exactly what the computer models would have done: predicted the catastrophe. The European flood warning system Efas “sounded the alarm on July 10th – four days before the first floods – and warned the German and Belgian governments of the high risk of flooding in the catchment area of the Rhine and Maas.”
Precise prediction
At least 24 hours in advance, the German authorities had been predicted almost precisely, according to Cloke, which districts would be affected by flooding, including areas on the Ahr where more than 93 people later died. It is precisely there that most of the 158 or more people whose deaths have so far been confirmed should die. More victims are likely to be discovered when the water drains and piles of rubble are cleared away.
Cloke admits that not all locations were precisely predicted, but that there was time to extensively warn a large area and, if necessary, to initiate evacuations. Cloke told ZDF that the data had been transmitted to Germany, “but somewhere this warning chain was broken, so that the messages did not reach the people”.
Music instead of warning announcements
For example, while the Wupper, which overflowed its banks, let the siren alarm go off on Thursday night in Wuppertal and loudspeaker trucks drove through the streets of the city, there were no warning announcements on public radio. He kept playing music.
The German Weather Service (DWD), which received the Efas warnings, does not see itself responsible for not alerting the population. A DWD spokesman told ZDF: “We did what we had to do.” With the exception of the individual municipalities, the day before the catastrophe, “warned against amounts of rain of up to 200 liters per square meter”. And as if the weather service blamed the media: the warnings sent by the DWD were “not shared by all media”. (kes)