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Weather expert Jörg Kachelmann in the Rhineland-Palatinate state parliament
Photo: Arne Dedert / dpa
Could the flood disaster of mid-July have been foreseen?
According to weather expert Jörg Kachelmann, the danger of extreme weather conditions in Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia - especially in the Eifel - had already become apparent three days before the disaster.
On the morning of July 14, hours before the flash flood of the Ahr, it was clear that streams and rivers in the upper reaches of the Eifel were "already full".
And the rain radar showed "that much larger amounts of rain will certainly come in the evening - a broadside," said Kachelmann on Friday before the investigative committee on the flood disaster of the Mainz state parliament.
It was no longer about meteorological models, but about "actually existing rain".
»No one has to die«
"There is always enough time to do the right thing," emphasized Kachelmann.
“Nobody has to die.” On Monday (July 12), the authorities could have prepared an evacuation as a precaution and warned the population in the valleys that such a measure could become necessary.
A total of 135 people died in the northern Rhineland-Palatinate in the flood disaster of July 14/15, 134 of them in the Ahr Valley.
Hundreds were injured and much of the valley was devastated.
col/dpa
