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LAST UPDATE | 17 Jul 2021
LOCAL AUTHORITIES IN Germany have been criticised for failing to evacuate people from flooded areas quickly enough.
Rescue workers scrambled on Saturday to find survivors and victims of the devastation caused by the worst floods to hit western Europe in living memory, which have already left more than 150 people dead and dozens more missing.
Hannah Cloke, a professor of hydrology at the University of Reading, told AFP that warnings from forecasters “were not taken seriously and preparations were inadequate”.
Unsuspecting residents were caught completely off guard by the torrent dubbed the “flood of death” by German newspaper Bild.
Some residents were also simply unaware of the risks of such violent flooding, with dozens found dead in their cellars.
Streets and houses were submerged by water in some areas, while cars were left overturned on soaked streets after flood waters passed. Some districts were completely cut off.
“Some victims underestimated the danger and did not follow two basic rules during heavy rainfall. Firstly, avoid basements where water penetrates. Secondly, switch off the electricity immediately,” Armin Schuster, chairman of the BBK, a state agency specialising in natural disasters, told the Bild daily, a German newspaper.
Exceptional weather
Between 100 and 150 millimetres of rain fell between 14 and 15 July, according to the German weather service – an amount that would normally be seen over two months.
Europe has been hit by severe flooding before, but this week has been “exceptional in terms of both the amount of water and the violence” with which it was dumped, according to German hydrologist Kai Schroeter.
Many European politicians have squarely blamed global warming for the disaster, while Germany’s far-right AfD has accused them of “instrumentalising” the floods to promote a climate-protection agenda.
Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo has declared Tuesday a day of official mourning.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who returned Friday from a trip to Washington overshadowed by the disaster, vowed to provide “short and long-term support from the government” to stricken municipalities.
Her spokesman said Friday she was in close contact with regional leaders about “a visit soon to the scene of the catastrophe”.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the flooding is “without doubt” the result of climate change.
Several towns in southern Netherlands suffered damage from flooding this week – though they were spared the worst seen in Germany and Belgium – and no deaths have been reported.
Asked late Friday during a visit to the southern province of Limburg whether global warming had contributed to the disaster, Rutte said that was “without a doubt the case”.
“I don’t want to make hasty declarations,” he said. “But something is really happening, let’s be clear.”
Urban Planning
Some experts have pointed to the dangers of poor urban planning and the increasing amount of concrete at the heart of a heavily industrialised, densely populated region of Europe.
The affected regions had already seen unusually high rainfall in recent weeks, meaning the soil was saturated and unable to absorb the excess water.
When the ground is covered with man-made materials like concrete, the soil is less able to absorb water, increasing the risk of flooding.
“We have to assume we will find further victims,” said Carolin Weitzel, mayor of Erftstadt, where a landslide was triggered by the floods.
In Germany’s worst-hit states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate, residents who fled the deluge were gradually returning to their homes and scenes of desolation on Saturday.
Luxembourg and the Netherlands were also hammered by heavy rains, inundating many areas and forcing thousands to be evacuated in the city of Maastricht.
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Very sad :( :( Germany have done so much to help those in need throughout the pandemic, be it analysing tests our when France had to send patients to Germany
Dear Journal, please don’t quote the BILD; it is a rag, equivalent to the Daily Mail, or worse. There are lots of other newspapers to quote. Don’t go for the worst one, please. Sincerely, a German immigrant.
@Accidental Gentleman: People have died in your native country & all you’re concerned with is the veracity of a newspaper? Not too worried about the mounting death toll then are you?
@Shea Carroll: I’d imagine the position he’s coming from is that the people at the BILD couldn’t give a fiddlers. And that it easy attacking people.
@Watchful Axe: says the person hiding behind an anonymous name…..
@Shea Carroll: Infantile. Many people are capable of being concerned about more that one thing at a time without having to spell it out for jacka$$es like you.
@Shea Carroll: I’ve read about this tragedy on a number of other news publications before commenting here. you can sleep easy knowing I have posted my condolences online elsewhere, Shea.
Terrible disaster to those that lost their lives Rest in Peace
There’s always deniers. Worlds population has quadrupled in less than a hundred years. But a few billion more won’t hurt.
@John O Connor: shhhh you can’t say that!!!
The problem that cannot be spoken about
@Michael Byrne: Look at the birth rates of countries and current populations, then you’ll see where the problem lies, but you can’t talk about that either
@Adam J: I’m sure the same was said about Irish Catholics 180 years ago.
@Adam J: the birth rates are highest in countries which generally contribute way less to global emissions than the rich Western elite. Its a chicken and egg too, with greater levels of development the birth rate declines, but emissions and damage to the environment rises. The problem isn’t the amount of people on the planet, more so the ridiculously uneven distribution of resources and the greed of a select few.
@Laura Walsh: the richest city in UK London has a majority demographic of non European decent,
@Laura Walsh: my nieces and nephews are not the select few but got of plane from Australia onto a plane to Berlin. To go a concert with everything recyclable. Their should be no taboos given our Catholic past.
So true, maybe the experimental jab will go wrong, that would definitely thin the heard, get us down to 2-3 billion,
@Joe ryan: what experimental jab? I haven’t heard about it yet? One that is possibly going to kill around 60% of the population? 8 mean I know about Covid vaccines which have been tested and aren’t experimental and the virus itself which can kill 2%-3% of the people it infects but you must know something truly extraordinary about people getting jabs that are more likely to kill them than save them all the while not even knowing they’re getting such a jab, please enlighten me.
@Derek Moran: Big families were the norm then regardless of religion. Queen Vicky has nine
It’s very sad! Condolences to all the families. The governments are to blame for, and, are responsible for this. ‘They’ are ‘allowing’ big businesses to spew out plastics and other unnecessary packaging materials and we the public are left with little choice!
It’s the beginning of the end.
@Tony O Neill: or the end of the beginning!
That 21yr old decorator will be busy
Climate change doesn’t exis……
@Cat Reid: Neither does your history knowledge.
@Contrary Mary: Either you understood his comment wrong or your knowledge of history is severely lacking to try and incorrectly use it against a well evidenced fact.
This is a huge loss of life and such a freak weather event I don’t think anyone could have predicted such chaos. So sad. I hope that a lot of lessons are learnt from this.
And once again the AfD proves they are full of it. They spout nonsense all day everyday. I grew up in the region of Rhineland-Palatinate, floods were an annual event for as long as I can remember but this bad? Well, I haven’t seen that ever!
Sure hope André Rieu is safe. That would be a loss to fine music. No wait…
@lelookcoco: Rude.
What caused it will be established later, but for now we should be thinking of the families of the people who died in Germany and Belgium. RIP to those poor souls who died.
I have a sneaky suspicion that there are people in the German Green party who are quietly delighted with what has recently happened. However there is nothing to be gained from denying the facts that are (literally) on the ground. We are almost certainly experiencing anthropogenic climate change. The important thing now is for all sections of the community to input their preferred way of mitigating climate change, rather than meekly accepting what Macron or Biden say is best for us.
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