Storms should be over for now, and some good news comes from the flood fronts in the country. Another top politician wants to get an impression of the situation on site.
Euskirchen / Passau – The situation in the flood areas in Germany has eased somewhat. In Passau (Bavaria) the water level of the Danube in the early morning was 8.18 meters and thus below the highest flood warning level of 8.5 meters.
Fortunately, one is still far from catastrophic conditions, said a police spokesman. There was also good news from other regions. During the course of the day, Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) wants to visit the areas in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate that have been particularly hard hit by the flood disaster and major destruction.
Quiet night
The city of Erftstadt (North Rhine-Westphalia) meanwhile informed that the more than 100 vehicles trapped on a federal highway by the flood had been recovered except for two trucks. No dead were discovered. Even in the Berchtesgadener Land in southeast Bavaria, which was particularly badly hit by storms, people could breathe a sigh of relief. “The night passed quietly,” said the fire department.
The railway line from Dresden (Saxony) to Prague (Czech Republic) is at least single-tracked again after salvage work due to violent storms. And in the course of the week, shipping on the Rhine near Speyer (Rhineland-Palatinate) and Karlsruhe (Baden-Württemberg) is to be reopened.
Very little rain predicted
The weather outlook also gives cause for hope: The German Weather Service (DWD) predicted “only a few drops” for the northern half of the week at the start of the week. Even in the southern half it is often friendly. According to the forecast, individual thunderstorms in the afternoon are only possible south of the Danube, but locally also with heavy rain.
Interior Minister Seehofer wants to get an idea of the work of the Technical Relief Organization (THW) on site. It is subordinate to the Federal Ministry of the Interior. According to the information, the organization has 2,500 helpers in the flood areas to bring people to safety, pump out basements, ensure the power supply and remove piles of rubble.
Seehofer is expected at the Steinbachtalsperre in Euskirchen in North Rhine-Westphalia, where a dam breach was recently still not ruled out. In the morning, experts wanted to advise, according to the district, “when the safe condition of the dam will be achieved and a return to the evacuated areas is possible”. Pumping is going according to plan, the situation at the dam is “unchanged, stable, but still not uncritical”. During a control flight of a Federal Police helicopter, no cracks were found, the fire department said in the morning.
Around noon, Seehofer wants to go to Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler (Rhineland-Palatinate) to visit a hospital. THW has installed a drinking water treatment system there. Masses of water had damaged the pipes in the vicinity of the clinic. After Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU), Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD) and Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the minister is another federal politician who travels to the disaster area to assure the people there of his support.
How well did civil protection work?
Meanwhile, Federal Minister of Economics Peter Altmaier asked for clarification as to whether the disaster control had worked sufficiently. “As soon as we have provided immediate help, we must also look: Are there things that did not go well, are there things that went wrong? And then it has to be corrected, ”said the CDU politician on Sunday in the“ Bild live ”political talk“ The right questions ”. “It’s not about pointing the blame, it’s about making improvements for the future.”
The head of the Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Relief, Armin Schuster, defended disaster control against criticism. “Our warning infrastructure worked in the federal government,” he said in the ZDF “heute journal”. “The German Meteorological Service gave relatively good warnings.” The problem is that it is often not possible to say half an hour in advance which location will be hit with what amount of rain. 150 messages were sent via warning apps. He cannot say at the moment where the people in the flood areas have been warned by sirens and where not.
North Rhine-Westphalia’s Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) said on the program that one would have to think about how to improve warning systems and how to reach those who do not have an app. Also with the coordination of the disaster relief “there is probably still a lot to do”. However, the minister refused to centralize civil protection in Berlin.
FDP parliamentary group vice Michael Theurer sees serious failures in civil protection. “The timely warnings of the meteorologists have not been adequately communicated to the citizens either by the authorities or by public service broadcasters,” he told the German press agency. “The picture is of a considerable system failure for which the Federal Minister of the Interior Seehofer bears direct personal responsibility.”
Number of deaths increased
The number of confirmed fatalities due to the devastating floods in Germany rose to almost 160 over the weekend. In the district of Ahrweiler (Rhineland-Palatinate) alone there are 117 deaths, said a police spokeswoman in Koblenz. How many people are still missing is still unclear. It is the worst flood disaster in Germany in decades. Many houses, streets and bridges are in ruins. Fire brigade, emergency services and the Bundeswehr are on duty.
And even if the clean-up work is progressing everywhere, the authorities have not yet given the all-clear, especially in cities like Passau. In Erftstadt-Blessem, according to experts, there is still an acute danger to life near a demolition edge, as District Administrator Frank Rock announced after a conversation with the local experts on Sunday. The stability of the subsoil in the particularly affected district must continue to be checked. In Blessem, the floods created a huge crater, at least three residential buildings and part of the historic castle collapsed. dpa
