FAQ
Status: 07/19/2021 4:25 p.m.
Days after the severe weather disaster, the processing is running. Why were many people surprised by the flood? Has there been sufficient warning? The most important questions and answers.
How are warnings received and who is actually responsible?
In Germany, the federal states are responsible for warning of disasters and general dangers. The warnings are given on the radio and on television. The fire brigade is also sometimes on the move with loudspeaker trucks. In some communities the sirens wail. The state governments set the framework for this. The warning in the event of an acute crisis is the task of the district administrators and fire brigade control centers. The federal government is only responsible for civil protection in Germany in the event of a defense – but supports the federal states as a service provider. The warning app Nina from the Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Relief (BBK) and the Katwarn app developed by Fraunhofer Fokus are available nationwide.
How was the population warned via warning apps?
This has not yet been fully reconstructed. According to the German Press Agency (dpa), anyone who lives in Erftstadt in North Rhine-Westphalia received a “hazard information” from the Rhein-Erft district control center via the warning app Nina last Wednesday with the message “Stay at home if possible”. A day later came the message “Dam breach. Extreme danger”. The residents of the districts of Blessem and Bliesheim were asked to turn off electrical devices, leave the building and go to a safe place.
In Ahrweiler (Rhineland-Palatinate), according to the dpa, there were no comparable hazard reports from the district’s control center via the Nina app. Anyone who had subscribed to the Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler location in the Katwarn app received the warning from the Ahrweiler district last Wednesday at 11.09 p.m. Live 50 m to the right and 50 m to the left of the Ahr, leave their apartments. ”
What is criticized – and should get better?
Many federal politicians find the division of responsibility outdated – also because extreme weather events now often affect larger areas. It is also unclear whether enough supplies, vehicles and helicopters are available in such cases. Due to the shared responsibilities, there is also a partial lack of an overview of where emergency services are available in another federal state or who may still be able to get vehicles that can drive through deep water within a short period of time.
There is also criticism of the warnings in particular. The FDP accuses Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer that the timely warnings of the meteorologists were not adequately communicated to the citizens. SPD politician Karl Lauterbach also called for consequences. “We are just as badly prepared for disaster control as we are for pandemic protection,” Lauterbach told the “Rheinische Post”. The infrastructure must be created and expanded.
A British scientist even accused the German authorities of “monumental” system failure. Clear indications that were issued within the framework of the European early warning system EFAS four days before the first floods apparently did not reach the population, said Hannah Cloke of the University of Reading of the “Sunday Times”.
According to the Copernicus climate change service, an initial warning was given to the relevant national authorities on July 10th. By July 14th, more than 25 additional warnings with continuously updated forecasts for specific regions of the Rhine and Maas were issued.
There was also criticism from the industry service dwdl.de on West German Broadcasting. The WDR admitted gaps in the coverage of the heavy rain catastrophe in North Rhine-Westphalia – at the same time, however, the broadcaster pointed out that he himself had been affected by the storm.
How do the responsible authorities react to the criticism?
The BBK rejects the allegations. The Federal Office is only responsible in the event of a defense, underlined BBK President Armin Schuster. However, the warning data have been made available to the countries. “We have no control over how these warnings are dealt with on site,” he said. It led the counties. The BBK sent 150 warning messages via apps and the media. “Our warning infrastructure worked in the federal government,” he said on “ZDF”. “The German Weather Service issued a relatively good warning.” The problem is that it is often not possible to say half an hour in advance which place it will hit with which amount of rain.
Federal Interior Minister Seehofer rejected the criticism as campaign rhetoric. In his opinion, the reporting channels for the storm disaster on the part of the federal government worked. And he also emphasized that the federal government was not responsible for disaster control. He did not want to interfere at the level of the federal states, he said.
The Ministry of the Interior in North Rhine-Westphalia sees no fundamental problems either. According to its own account, it forwarded severe weather warnings from the German Weather Service to the cities and districts last week. Basically, however, a locality principle applies in disaster control, so that decisions have to be made on protective measures on site, said a ministry spokesman. Last Wednesday, a coordination staff was formed in the North Rhine-Westphalian Ministry of the Interior. Since then, in-house experts have been advising other experts – for example from the Ministry of the Environment, the Federal Armed Forces, the Federal Police or the fire services – on the situation on a permanent basis. A contact person can also be reached there around the clock, said the spokesman.
According to the Federal Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, the German Weather Service (DWD) warned of heavy rain at an early stage. “On Monday morning, July 12, 2021 at 6:00 a.m., two days before the storm, the DWD informed about the impending heavy rain events,” said a ministry spokesman. “This information was sent to the responsible disaster control agencies in the federal states, districts and municipalities. The specific protective measures to be derived from it must be taken by the emergency services on site.”
Which proposals are currently being discussed?
Several experts and politicians are calling for civil protection to be more centralized. The Chancellor candidate of the Greens, Annalena Baerbock, for example, spoke out in favor of equipping the Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Relief with a central office function – such as the Federal Criminal Police Office. The federal government should thus have a greater coordinating role in supra-regional disasters such as floods or forest fires. “Help only works when everything is interlinked. To do this, you need an authority that bundles all forces and pulls together helicopters or special equipment from all over Germany or neighboring EU states,” she said in “Spiegel.”
The county council suggests not stopping with alarms via smartphone apps. SMS could also be used to reach people who use simple cell phones. Experts also criticize the fact that in many municipalities there are only a few or no sirens anymore. Sirens can warn people who do not have a cell phone, have switched it off or simply cannot hear the warning. The BBK is working on an overview that should be ready by the end of the year. The federal government also wants to help the states to set up sirens with 88 million euros – that was decided before the storm disaster.
What does the Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance do?
The Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance has already been criticized several times. At the beginning of the corona pandemic, it hardly played a role. In the autumn of last year, a nationwide test alarm for the case of a defense went badly wrong. The official warning from the BBK came late, and some of the WarnApps did not warn at all. BBK President Christoph Unger had to leave a little later, Armin Schuster came.
The BBK is to be reorganized as a whole. Among other things, a joint civil protection competence center is to be set up, and national camps with protective equipment are to be set up.
The new attempt at a nationwide warning, originally planned for September, was only postponed a few weeks ago. According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, the next warning day is scheduled for September 8, 2022.