Zerstörungen stromabwärts von Mariahilf

First we should focus on the past an what went wrong there. I don't know to what degree the media in other countries covered the flood and its aftermath. So let me summarize a few things.

First, we had a fairly rainy spring - I remember I took off the week after Easter and we stayed at home reading most of the time, because the weather was awful. There was a brief sunny period in late May / early June, but the first half of July was again rainier and colder than normal. All that is natural, there is not too much we can do about it. Same goes for the terrain, our valley is rocky (mostly shale), and the soil does not absorb water too well.

However: already five days before the flood, scientist issued alerts about a possibly devastating flood in the Ahr valley. None of that really was brought to the common people's attention. One meteorologist (Sven Plöger, with whom I usually love to disagree...) suggested the regional public broadcaster should use one of their radio channels for a 24 hours a day special so inhabitants of the valleys affected could be warned in advance. The broadcaster turned the idea down.

Then, just hours before the flood, the responsible ministry on state level (The ministry of environment of Rhineland-Palatinate) issued a press release claiming there was no imminent threat of floodings. When the responsible under-secretary (and the minister's right hand man) was told by a subordinate that the press statement was wrong and should be corrected, he refused. During the night of the flood, the responsible minister was apparently incommunicado, after spending the evening having dinner with political friends.

The following morning, as we know from leaked chat messages, the main topic of conversation in the ministry was not how to help the people affected, but how to come up with a wording that would make the minister look better. Briefly after the flood, that minister took her family for a vacation to France - FOR FOUR WEEKS! She got promoted a couple months later, accepting a position in the new national cabinet...

When news about the circumstances spread, she tried to clear herself claiming that the vacation was necessary because her sick husband needed it - her had suffered a stroke three years ago - just as much as her children who were fed up after all those Covid related lockdowns. Need I mention that the minister's party was the most ardent advocate of harsh Covid measures?

So as I said: a lot of reason to look to the recent past and see how we can remedy such things. The material damage I think could not really be avoided - but government failure cost the lifes of over 130 people.