German opposition politicians accuse government of ignoring flood warnings

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BERLIN Some opposition politicians on Monday accused Angela Merkels’ government of ignoring warnings from meteorologists ahead of last week’s deadly floods, triggering the first debate on political responsibility for the heavy human toll.

More than 160 people have died and around 1,000 have been hospitalized to date following the disaster that hit the country on Wednesday and Thursday. Officials say those numbers could rise as rescuers continue to search destroyed homes.

International and German meteorologists issued specific flood warnings for the western part of the country last Monday, but the disaster took many affected communities by surprise, contributing to the high death toll as the victims were trapped by the waters of flood in their homes overnight.

Politicians from the center-right Free Democrats, the Greens and the Left Party have said Ms Merkels’ government must heed the warnings, with some calling for the resignation of Home Secretary Horst Seehofer, who oversees the disaster management.

Interior Minister Horst Seehofer is responsible for disaster management in Germany. Photo: friedemann vogel / Shutterstock

It was a serious systemic failure: We need to speak openly about government failures and what needs to be immediately improved to prevent this from happening again, said Michael Theurer, a Free Democrat lawmaker who focuses on politics. disaster management in parliament.

Meteorologists and rescue workers were excellent, but local authorities failed to evacuate areas in time, Theurer said.

Susanne Hennig-Wellsow, co-chair of La Gauche party, called on Seehofer to resign, saying the federal government had not taken the warning seriously enough, or that it had not triggered a reaction from local authorities .

Both would be inexcusable and serious political mistakes which, given the gravity of the disaster, are so serious that a resignation of the minister in charge would be more than appropriate, Ms Hennig-Wellsow said.

The before and after images show the extent of the damage in German cities affected by the region’s worst flooding in decades. Visiting a flooded village, German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for more efforts to tackle future climate-related disasters. Photo: 2021 Maxar Technologies satellite image

A spokesperson for Mr Seehofer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The allocation of responsibility for loss of life is complicated by the German federal system, which delegates disaster prevention on the ground to state and local authorities.

The German Weather Service, an agency of the federal government, issues flood warnings which are then passed on to authorities and the media. This happened Monday and Tuesday, before the heavy rains that led to the flooding, and some media relayed the warnings.

Local authorities such as municipal and departmental councils are then responsible for alerting or evacuating communities. They only acted to warn people in the affected areas on Wednesday evening, when the flooding had already started, opposition politicians said.

A spokesperson for the weather service said the agency had done its duty in issuing the warnings. The spokesperson said local authorities, not federal authorities, would be required to make the immediate decision to initiate evacuation or other emergency procedures upon receipt of the warning, and that senior levels of government would not. would be involved only at a later stage.

A spokesperson for the Interior Ministry said warnings from the weather service were immediately passed on to local authorities, emergency services and the media, and alerts were also sent to the alert app. to disasters used by around nine million people in Germany.

The government of North Rhine-Westphalia, one of the worst-affected states, was aware of the warnings early last week, state Interior Minister Herbert Reul said on Monday, but it was impossible predict which specific areas would actually be flooded.

Everything does not seem to have worked out well. Everyone knew what was happening to us, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to determine where large bodies of water will fall, Mr Reul said.

The bridge over the Ahr in Ahrweiler was completely destroyed by the inundation. Photo: Boris Roessler / Zuma Press

Write to Bojan Pancevski at [email protected]

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