The CDU has prepared for the session in the Mainz state parliament, has put together 23 pages, it is about the role of the Rhineland-Palatinate interior minister on the evening of the flood disaster. What did Roger Lewentz (SPD) know on July 14, 2021? And what did he know when?
The Interior Minister had previously said that there were “no reliable pictures of the situation” in the evening.
The CDU says: it has.
In the party, they wrote minutes of the evening, noted the times, compared witness statements. At around 9:27 p.m., the information was received by the Interior Ministry’s situation center that “whole houses had swum away”. At around 11:04 p.m., the office manager called the interior nurse, saying that six houses had probably collapsed in the town of Guilt. That alone is enough to get a picture of the situation, to understand the drama, and that’s what the CDU called its report “The Lewentz case.” But does he fall?
A lot of information was available in the evening
Before the interior minister comes before the committee of inquiry, others speak first, employees from the situation center of the interior ministry, the president of the Oversight and Services Directorate (ADD), an agency that coordinates civil protection in the country. The more they talk, the clearer it becomes how much information was available on the evening of the flood.
First there is an employee from the situation center in the Ministry of the Interior. As early as 5.30 p.m. they were told that the Stahlhütte campsite in Dorsel had been flooded and that people had saved themselves on roofs. At 9:20 p.m., the Koblenz police headquarters informed the situation center that a camper van had been driven away. Fire brigades and rescue workers were “in places” no longer able to get to places. At 10:55 p.m., the situation center received the report that six houses had collapsed in Guilt and that people were standing on other houses and shining their flashlights. And at 11:40 p.m., pictures of the police helicopter squadron were received, which the employee describes as follows: “A large expanse of water with houses visible in it.” He forwarded the pictures to the Minister’s office.
Did the words “flash flood” or “tidal wave” fall that evening? The employee denies that he had the impression of a “punctual extreme flood event” and that the drama did not reach the situation center.
Next up is the President of the Supervisory and Service Directorate (ADD) Thomas Linnertz (SPD). He repeats what he said in a first interview. Yes, he had information about “large-scale” floods, later about “floating oil tanks”. But he only found out after midnight that houses had collapsed in Schuld, and also that there could have been deaths. At 0.30 a.m. he informed the Minister of the Interior about it.
An SMS: “The situation is escalating”
Two experts had previously come to the conclusion that his authority could – or should have – taken over the command of the local command. The relevant requirements in the country’s fire and disaster protection law were met.
Thomas Linnertz takes a different view. He had no knowledge that the local operations management could have been overwhelmed, and there was “no indication” that he would take over the operations management. He did not see photos that were sent to the ADD at 0.23 a.m. and show flooded places on the Ahr.
And so – long before the interior minister comes before the deputies – two things are clear. Apparently, the information available was only insufficiently exchanged between the agencies involved, i.e. districts, ADD, Ministry of the Interior. And they were underestimated.
The CDU is therefore demanding that Thomas Linnertz resign in the evening. “Either he didn’t tell us the truth or he has a clear organizational fault in his own house,” said the parliamentary group leader Christian Baldauf.
But what about the “Lewentz case”? The CDU accused him of serious omissions. He should have been on the Interior Ministry’s crisis team to get better information. He should have involved the Bundeswehr better. At around 0.58 a.m. he sent an SMS to Prime Minister Malu Dreyer (SPD), in which he wrote: “The situation is escalating (…) there may be / may have been deaths. Our helicopters flew over it, received light signals with flashlights, but could not go down. There must have been very sad scenes.”
But the interior minister prepared his defense just as well as the CDU prepared its attack. At 7:25 p.m., his office manager informed him that a helicopter with a winch was on its way to rescue people from the roofs at the Dorsel campsite. There were signs of severe flooding, but severe flooding is not uncommon in Rhineland-Palatinate. At the operations center in Ahrweiler, he found a “functioning center” and “neither the management nor the staff seemed overwhelmed.” He then drove home to his office and was always available, also for the district administrator, “I was by no means, as was slanderously claimed, eating schnitzel”.
However, the district administrator did not try to reach him, and no one else asked for the state to take over the management of the operation. Apart from that, at night, without local knowledge, “not possible without losses or cutbacks”. He only found out from his office manager at 11:04 p.m. that the situation was getting worse, but he knew that the emergency services were on their way. At 11.46 p.m. he saw pictures from the police helicopter and informed the Prime Minister via SMS.
Further questions?
At the end of the evening, MPs talked at length about times, what information went to whom when – but little about why so much information was not passed on. Or just underestimated. About the six collapsed houses in debt, because of which Lewentz sent an SMS to Dreyer, but did not have her bodyguards wake her up. “Many of the statements made by Interior Minister Lewentz were at least evasive and often inadequate,” the CDU said. And despite all the criticism, that doesn’t sound like they expect his fall, at least not for the moment.