Status: 07/20/2021 02:43 a.m.
After the last major flood disaster in 2002, the European Flood Warning Authority Efas was founded. Now there were again high numbers of victims and billions in damages. A British expert speaks of a “monumental system failure”.
From Jakob Mayr,
ARD studio Brussels
According to EU information, the European flood warning system Efas sounded the alarm at the end of the week before last: A high probability of flooding was predicted for the Rhine in Germany and Switzerland, followed by a high risk of flooding for the Meuse in Belgium.
From July 10, Saturday a week ago, the first Efas warnings were sent to the responsible national authorities. EU Commission spokeswoman Sonya Gospodínova says: “In this case, flood warnings were sent to the national authorities about the high risk of flooding in the coming days. The warning system is not responsible for warnings to the population or evacuations.”
More than 25 warnings by July 14th
In Germany, the Efas reports are sent to the state offices for the environment in Bavaria, Hesse and Saxony and to the Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Relief in Bonn. The Bavarian State Office for the Environment in Augsburg confirms that it receives Efas flood warnings as an additional source of information for its own forecasts. According to the Bavarian State Office, feedback is also given as to the extent to which the warnings were correct.
The reports of the Efas were updated several times from July 10th, a total of more than 25 warnings for certain regions of the catchment area of the Rhine and Maas were sent according to EU information by July 14th.
Efas is a European cooperation
The European Flood Awareness System Efas is a Copernicus project, and that in turn is the EU program for observing the earth, especially through satellites. Several institutions scattered across Europe have teamed up for Efas to process data for their recipients. The European Center for Medium Range Weather Forecasts in Reading, west of London, provides daily forecasts and technical support. Scientific institutes in Sweden and Slovakia analyze the results and pass them on to the partners.
A German consortium with the participation of the German Weather Service collects meteorological information. Efas’ maps, diagrams and tables are sent to a total of 75 partners, including national and regional authorities across Europe. The forecasts are updated twice a day, and the partners can also receive warning messages on request. Many national services also use other data to make more detailed forecasts for their region.
Efas is one of the lessons learned from the last great flood disaster
The Efas is a child of the last great flood disaster, it was founded as a result of the devastating floods on the Elbe and Danube in the summer of 2002. At that time, flood warnings came too late, were incomplete and came from various sources, which made it difficult to plan and organize aid.
Efas has been in full operation for almost nine years as part of the Emergency Management Service of the Copernicus program. In an interview with the Sunday Times, the British researcher Hannah Cloke calls the fact that a flood had such terrible consequences in the summer of 2021 – deaths, injuries, billions in losses.
When asked, the professor at Reading University said she was very surprised that so many people died, even though everyone knew what was coming and there was enough time to get people to safety.
We have to find out who gave what information when and what people did with it. We have to look at the action plans, we have to change them and try them out.
Cloke helped set up the European flood warning system Efas. She says she totally understand people’s disappointment and she shares it. I’ve worked on flood warnings my whole life and it breaks my heart when people die when something could have been done to save them. According to the British scientist, in order to react appropriately to floods, a chain of events is needed that interlocks well. Now every chain link has to be examined in order to remedy errors for future cases.