In the investigative committee of the state parliament, Interior Minister Roger Lewentz (SPD) reported, among other things, on his visit to the Ahrweiler district on the evening of the flood. There was no scenario for a flash flood in the operations center, said Lewentz.
“People have prepared for a severe flood,” said the interior minister. He had not heard the terms flood or flash flood in the technical operations management. Neither on the way to Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler nor about 25 minutes later on the way back did he visually notice anything about flooding or heavy rain, said the SPD politician. The bridges, for example, were passable.
“Operations management in the Ahrweiler district made a competent impression”
In the operations control center in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, he had the impression “that you work very competently and with concentration because you know the region and have the flood of 2016 in mind”. The fact that the Ministry of the Interior could take over the command of operations was not an issue at all, Lewentz reported.
With his visit to the district of Ahrweiler, he wanted to strengthen the municipal level. He was not aware that District Administrator Jürgen Pföhler (CDU) was “only briefly” present in the operations center at the time.
Stitch: I assumed it was a heavy rain event
The looming catastrophe was not even remotely recognizable, Interior Secretary Randolf Stich (SPD) had previously explained in the committee. According to Stich, the Rhineland-Palatinate Ministry of the Interior still assumed a heavy rain event on the evening of the flood, as had happened more frequently in previous years. The state secretary said there was no mention of a flood disaster in the situation reports of July 14. According to the information available to the ministry, “one could assume that the responsible civil protection was active on site”.
As an example, Stich cited the requested helicopter rescue of campsite visitors in Dorsel. He therefore saw “no indications of the need” to “arrange further steps,” said the State Secretary. In addition, the ADD announced that it had started its coordination work in the affected areas. According to Stich, the extent of the catastrophe only gradually became clear during the course of July 15.
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Crisis researchers express strong criticism
The director of the Kiel Institute for Crisis Research, Frank Roselieb, said on Friday in the committee that there were clear deficits on the part of the district administrator, but also that of the then Environment Minister Anne Spiegel (Greens) in dealing with the disaster.
“The main responsibility lay with the district administrator,” said the expert who was connected via video. After the then district administrator Jürgen Pföhler (CDU), it would have come second to the then specialist minister, the current federal family minister Spiegel. “In our opinion, leadership was lacking,” said Roselieb, giving the current Federal Minister for Family Affairs a grade of 3-4.
Roselieb rated the behavior of Prime Minister Malu Dreyer (SPD) with 2 minus. You have to go if the minister can’t. Interior Minister Roger Lewentz (SPD) did what he could.
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Prime Minister Dreyer is also questioned
In the evening, Prime Minister Dreyer will also be available to answer questions from the committee. Previous witness statements in the committee of inquiry and chat logs that had become public had given the impression that the state government had not recognized the extent of the disaster for a long time – apparently well into the flood night. After a visit from the operations center in the Ahrweiler district in the early evening of July 14, Lewentz reported to Dreyer that he had not noticed any indication of a “dramatic situation”. At this point the upper reaches of the Ahr were already under land.
The role of the state government is also involved in dealing with the flood disaster. Now there are reports of government officials chatting on flood night.
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How and when were Dreyer and Lewentz informed about the situation?
Around 10 p.m., Dreyer and Lewentz texted each other several times. A message from the Prime Minister said: “I hear that the highest level of flooding will not be reached until midday tomorrow? It’s really bad.” After that, according to the logs, the two only had contact again the next morning at around 5:30 a.m. Dreyer and Lewentz are now to report in the committee, among other things, how they were informed about the flood situation in the north of the country. What they did then and how it was communicated within the state government.
The Environment Minister at the time, Anne Spiegel (Greens), who was also responsible for flood protection, had testified in the sub-committee that she had had no direct exchange with Dreyer or Lewentz on the evening of the flood. During her questioning, Spiegel reported that she spent the evening in her private apartment in Mainz and had telephone calls well into the night, including with her state secretary Erwin Manz (Greens) and her party colleague Bernhard Braun.
Ex-Environment Minister Spiegel has rejected allegations that she was primarily concerned about her image after the flood disaster. In the sub-committee of the state parliament, she said that help for those affected was the focus. Meanwhile, demands for his resignation are coming from the Union and Free Voters.
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Opposition sees leadership failure of the state government
The opposition accuses the state government of leadership failure. There was obviously no clear communication. In Luxembourg, the entire government came together for a crisis meeting on the night of the flood, in Rhineland-Palatinate the state government went to sleep, said the CDU chairman of the committee of inquiry, Dirk Herber. The prime minister must explain to the committee why she did not intervene on the night of the flood. The chairman of the Free Voters, Stephan Wefelscheid, spoke of a key day in the sub-committee to clarify political responsibility for the flood disaster.
Herber is already assuming that Dreyer and Lewentz will have to be invited to the committee of inquiry again. The current time of the survey is “completely out of place”, among other things because many files available to the committee members have not yet been evaluated. The traffic light parties SPD, Greens and FDP had enforced the appointment.
Prosecutors do not investigate members of the government
The public prosecutor’s office in Koblenz has so far not seen any criminal omissions by the Rhineland-Palatinate state government because of the deadly flood. The authority has been investigating for around seven months. There is no evidence that current or former members of the state government had information “that would have required their intervention from a criminal point of view,” according to the public prosecutor.
The investigations have so far been directed against the former district administrator of the Ahrweiler district, Jürgen Pföhler, and a member of the operations management team at the time. It is about the suspicion of negligent homicide and negligent bodily harm through omission because warnings and evacuations were possibly too late.
In the committee of inquiry into the flood disaster, it has become clear that there are deficits in alarm and action plans in the affected districts. This also applies to the Ahrweiler district, which was particularly hard hit by the flood last July.
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The investigative committee should clarify what omissions there were in the flood disaster in mid-July and who is responsible for it. The flood caused devastating damage in the night from July 14 to 15, 2021, 135 people died in Rhineland-Palatinate alone.