According to NRW Prime Minister Armin Laschet, the aid fund planned by the federal and state governments for the flood victims must have a volume of 20 to 30 billion euros. This is what the CDU candidate for Chancellor said in the NRW state parliament. According to Laschet, the damage caused by the storm in mid-July amounts to more than 13 billion euros in his federal state alone. The damage in Rhineland-Palatinate is at least as high.
The federal government and the prime ministers of the federal states want to launch the fund on Tuesday. Now a speedy parliamentary procedure with special sessions of the Bundestag and Bundesrat is necessary, affirmed Laschet. “I think that the Bundestag can still meet in August.”
Among other things, more than 150 schools were damaged, at least eight of them so badly that without an alternative solution, even limited school operations would not be possible, reported Laschet. In addition, more than 200 daycare centers and doctor’s offices were damaged, and more than 50 pharmacies. “The flood of July 14th and 15th was probably the biggest natural disaster that North Rhine-Westphalia has hit since the Federal Republic of Germany came into existence,” said the Prime Minister. “After everything I’ve seen in the past few weeks, I’m still deeply shaken.”
After the flood of the century, the state government appoints a commissioner for reconstruction, as Laschet announced. The task will be taken over by the general manager of the North Westphalia Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Fritz Jaeckel.
Jaeckel had already been involved in managing the major flood disasters of 2002 and 2013 in Saxony and therefore knew exactly what to do in such a situation, said Laschet. “The rapid reconstruction of thousands of private apartments and houses has probably not happened here in North Rhine-Westphalia since the war.”
In addition, he asked the President of the Federal Agency for Technical Relief, Albrecht Broemme, who had been in office for many years, to use the example of this flood to investigate immediately how cities and villages could be protected even more effectively in the event of a disaster. Laschet said Germany had to get better at disaster control and alerting. He had offered the prime ministers of the other affected countries that Broemme would analyze the situation there as well.
In the storm disaster in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate, more than 180 people were killed in mid-July, including 47 in North Rhine-Westphalia alone.
NRW wants flood forecasting system for all small rivers
Environment Minister Ursula Heinen-Esser (CDU) announced in a special session of the Environment Committee on the flood disaster that a flood forecast system should be developed for all small rivers in North Rhine-Westphalia.
So far there has only been systematic flood protection for large rivers such as the Rhine. During the catastrophe, however, the small rivers, in some cases, had reached historically high peak water levels. The lack of forecasting ability was the main problem with the storm of the century, said Heinen-Esser. Reliable and locally precisely delimited assessments were not possible.
Experts estimate that a flood disaster of this magnitude occurs every 10,000 years. In addition, a dam management is necessary, which can react more quickly to both drought and floods with the help of digital technology. But it could not be said that the dam management had failed altogether, said the minister. In general, living, working, working and urban development must be better adapted to climate change. Not everything can be rebuilt exactly as it was before. However, further flood events could not be completely prevented, said Heinen-Esser.
Interior Ministry rejects allegations against Laschet
The SPD in the Düsseldorf state parliament accuses the state government of “inconsistencies” in its statements on crisis management and has summarized them in a 24-page paper. The opposition asks, among other things, why the state government did not warn the people and why the country’s crisis team was not activated. The Interior Ministry denied the allegations.
The SPD paper, which the Rheinische Post reported, initially lists subsequent chronologies of two meteorological services on 16 pages. The parliamentary group concluded: “It is therefore necessary to fully explain how the state government has dealt with the information in concrete terms since the warnings of extreme precipitation were received.” On the Thursday after the flood disaster, Laschet was on election campaign dates outside of North Rhine-Westphalia, according to the SPD: “Why hasn’t he picked up the strings since Wednesday and activated the state’s crisis team?”
When asked about warnings, the Ministry of the Interior said that the German Weather Service (DWD) was the “responsible institution for the official transmission of weather warnings”. According to the ministry, they were sent to the broadcasters “to the best of our knowledge.” The state of North Rhine-Westphalia had also reached an agreement with the DWD, according to which the weather service would send its warnings directly to the situation center of the police, the district governments, districts and independent cities: “In this way, no time is lost by forwarding the state.”
When asked about the crisis team, the ministry replied that it had set up a “state situation for non-police security” on July 13th – Tuesday. This serves to “identify the main areas of operation and organize the necessary supra-local help”. On Wednesday afternoon – when Hagen and Altena, among others, were already severely affected – the Interior Ministry activated the “coordination group of the state government’s crisis team”. “In this staff, headed by Minister Reul, decisions on all aspects relevant to the situation were coordinated and made. The relevant ministries then implemented these according to the departmental principle,” said the ministry.