Criminal Negligence? Authorities Failed To Heed Flood Warnings…”Let People Drown”…”Monumental System Failure”

Harsh criticism of German authorities failing to act is mounting in the aftermath of the recent deadly floods.

Germany’s New Orleans

Many of the over one hundred people who died in the recent flood disaster in Central Western Germany could have been prevented – had the responsible institutions heeded the warnings that had been already issued days in advance by the weather services.

Authorities had been warned days early, yet they did nothing to prepare to evacuate and mobilize resources. The media did nothing to warn.

Veteran meteorologist: “much could have been prevented”

Swiss meteorologist Jörg Kachelmann told in a PULS 24 interview that “much of it could have been prevented” and that “people could have been warned”.

“The rainfall could not have been prevented” but the authorities and the “media could have warned the population.” The veteran Swiss meteorologist is surprised by the “surprise of the authorities” and says “people could have been evacuated or at least items moved to higher floors”.

“Let people drown” as “they broadcast shit”

Kachelman also commented to Germany’s leading national daily, Bild: “It hurts when the very people who would have the resources to accompany such a weather situation 24/7 do nothing to save lives. But they broadcast shit and let people drown.”

Unpreparedness becoming a German habit

Publicist Roland Tichy at tichyseinblick.de commented on what seems to be a state of permanent paralysis among the authorities: “Those who blame the flood disaster on the climate are arguing cynically: It is a matter of concrete responsibility and concrete measures and solutions. And so every weather hits Germany unprepared.”

Warnings already days in advance

Online FOCUS magazine here reported authorities claimed the flood came suddenly, and so it was impossible to prepare. Bur Jan Schenk from “The Weather Channel” told FOCUS that warnings began to appear already late last week:

Already on Friday, a heavy precipitation event was announced in western Germany. The weather models swung so strongly that one could already speak of severe weather due to heavy rain. By Monday at the latest, it must have been clear to everyone that there would be flooding in western Germany.”

“Monumental system failure”

FOCUS added:

The European EFAS flood warning system had even issued a warning of ‘extreme flooding.’ The fact that so many people still had to die was ‘a monumental system failure,’ British hydrologist Hannah Cloke, an EU Commission adviser on EFAS, told the political magazine Politico.”

Belgium and the Netherlands both evacuated citizens.

Climate change to deflect attention from failure 

Meanwhile science editor Axel Bojanowski at “Welt” commented on claims that the flood was caused by German CO2 emissions: “The climate argument is used by politicians to deflect attention from their own responsibility for a disaster. Records show flash floods are less dangerous than before despite climate change.”

Building in a natural flood zone!

Another suspected problem not getting the needed attention is reckless planning and zoning. At Twitter, Stefan S. astutely noted that the hard hit town of Altenau in Rhineland Palatinate appears to have been built on an area that is a natural flood area of the Ahr River, satellite photos suggest:

Germany becoming increasingly paved over

Another major factor contributing to flash flooding is the amount of Germany’s surface area that is made impervious (paved over). A total of 19,743 km² (5.5%) of the country’s surface area is paved.

The recent German floods turned out to be where Germany is the most paved over, as the following chart shows. The colors shows the degree to which the surface is paved over:

Source: Leibnitz Institute

Deadliest floods occurred before 1980

Finally, climate alarmists like insisting that flooding today is far worse than before CO2 emissions reached higher levels (350+ppm). But of course this is nonsense. The 30 most deadly floods in the last 1000 years all occurred before 1980:

Also read: Hamburg’s disasters early warning debacle.




27 responses to “Criminal Negligence? Authorities Failed To Heed Flood Warnings…”Let People Drown”…”Monumental System Failure””

  1. John F Hultquist

    The with and without flooding photos:
    Google Earth shows the location as:
    50.510947, -6.987327

    Rotate to get the same perspective.
    The town name shown is Altenburg.
    Should be Altenahr, I think.

    Someone familiar with names there might help.

    And yes, many homes in the region are built on low flat land rather on the higher hills.
    This is a common thing and likely pre-dates historic organization.

  2. tom0mason

    Similar has happen all over the UK over the last 20 years, as building regulations have been relaxed (more building closer to rivers and on drained land, etc.) That and the authorities who are supposed to maintain the rivers and waterway not doing their job — apparently rewilding local areas (deliberately making slow water flows with shallow but wide bends in rivers for amphibians and water birds) is more important that dredging the waterways. And in the rainy UK this has been a good recipe for flood disasters all over Britain.
    Of course the manic miserablists MSM, especially the ‘thick as a brick’ BBC journalists screech ‘climate change’ each time without examining any real evidence or facts.
    The case of the UK’s ‘Somerset Levels’ shows the government’s historic and ongoing negligence …
    https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303502481_We_cannot_let_this_happen_again_reversing_UK_flood_policy_in_response_to_the_Somerset_Levels_floods_2014 [requires a request to the authors for a copy], outlines what changes where made to the policy governing that local area.
    Needless to say this had little impact on the policy for the rest of the flood prone UK.

    Good luck Germany as the LIA should have taught us, as the planet cools off weather events tend to get more erratic, and a little more extreme — be prepared.

    1. Bernd Felsche

      I commented on the Somerset floods at the time. https://wp.me/p1QUg8-lu
      Too many dreamers believing that the weather would always be ideal.

      “Neglected” drainage was a major factor in the severity of flooding. The neglect was a government plan in accordance with EU policy.

  3. Eben

    All the wind mills and solar panels and it didn’t prevent the flooding – I am shocked

  4. Yonason

    ”Authorities had been warned days early, yet they did nothing to prepare to evacuate and mobilize resources.”

    But of course if there was even the faintest hint of a danger to the authorities, they wouldn’t hesitate to respond with all their might against the perceived threat. They’ve forgotten that they exist to advance the needs of the people. What better proof that their pretence of concern for imagined climate effects on future generations is a fraud?!

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  8. bonbon

    Saw this first at WUWT….
    To say there was no warning flies in the face of these repeated weather channels in French and in German for everyone to view (until they censor)?

    https://www.youtube.com/c/KaiZornWetter
    looks hard at at least 4 weather models, and just look at the last 10 days shows.

    And :

    https://www.youtube.com/c/wetterkachelmann/videos
    made repeated warnings.

    Just look at the east border of France over the last 10 days :
    https://www.youtube.com/c/cieldefrance

    Where does Ursula van der Leyen think the French weather goes – falls of the edge of the earth right at the border not far from Brussels?

    Seems clear this disaster is required to push van der Leyen’s ‘Fit for 55’ EU Green New Deal, which Hungary rejected. Note Switzerland, rejected this stuff a couple of weeks ago, and they know flooding and landslides!

    Merkel promised reconstruction, van der Leyen did not.

    Have we a replay of the infamous 1971 open debate in NY, now with ¨If Germany had accepted the Green New Deal, catastrophes would not have been necessary¨?

    Or have we the even more scurrilous – ¨If Russia and China accept the Rules Based Order, NATO action would not be necessary¨ – note NATO and the Pentagon place climate and China on their top list of adversaries.

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  10. bonbon

    Has everyone forgotten the Aug 2002 Elbe flood disaster? At the time, right in the middle of an election, again!, Chancellor Schroeder said the Maastricht Stability Pact prevented reconstruction financing.
    Now who will buck Brussels, who preach ¨climate¨ and prevent timely reconstruction?

    Just imagine what will happen there when winter approaches!!!

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