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In July 2021: flood disaster in the Ahr valley and the Eifel
Photo: Marius Becker / picture alliance / dpa
According to estimates by Germany's largest insurer, Allianz, last summer's flood will not remain a one-off catastrophe.
"We will see one or the other event of this kind in Germany during our lifetime," said Jochen Haug, head of claims processing at Allianz.
"Hopefully not quite as bad as in the Ahr Valley, but statistically such extreme weather events are becoming more frequent."
Large insurance companies analyze loss data, including natural catastrophes, on a large scale, as this is equally important for calculating risks and insurance premiums.
"We now observe more frequently that thunderstorm cells no longer migrate or only move very slowly," said Haug.
"When a strong thunderstorm stops, it causes a dramatic amount of precipitation in a small area."
The flood in July last year claimed over 180 lives and caused total damage of around 30 billion euros.
Insurers contributed over eight billion, the rest was uninsured.
"In terms of claims settlement, we have almost completely closed the motor vehicle and household damage," said Haug.
"In the case of building damage, almost 20 percent have not yet been fully settled."
But this is a sharply flattening curve.
"We expect most things should be settled by the end of the year, meaning the major restoration and habitability of the buildings."
According to Haug, the fact that damage processing for the buildings takes time is due to several factors: "To understand: If a building is destroyed and the reason washed away, it is difficult to restore it." It is also not yet clear whether some buildings are in their old place could be rebuilt.
It will take time for electricity and water connections and public infrastructure to be restored.
In addition, according to Haug, the extent of the destruction makes it impossible to repair all the damage at the same time: “Even if it is absolutely clear that the insurer is responsible for the damage, it takes a while before you get a craftsman.” It also takes time for the building to dry completely many months.
"After such severe damage, it can take several years before everything is completely restored."
»Many people should not have died«
The warning chains for citizens should be significantly improved, said Haug - "I am convinced that many people should not have died." But not all damage could have been prevented even with a perfect warning system.
“You can move a car, but you can't move a house.
The most dangerous thing in the Ahr valley were the so-called flood projectiles in the water – objects such as tree trunks or cars floating in the torrential current.« Allianz is basically well prepared for natural disasters – »but extreme weather events like »Bernd« show us where we need to change or adapt processes« said Haug.
The alliance has therefore adapted its concept for major crises.
"We procure drying devices and emergency power generators ourselves if required, because these are then very quickly no longer available on the market." After the storm "Bernd", Haug said Allianz delivered 2,000 drying devices and 100 emergency power generators to customers, experts were dispatched added to other regions.
»This catastrophe was incredibly depressing for us too.
We don't deal with such a high death toll and disasters of this magnitude on a day-to-day basis," the manager said.
"We had 23,000 claims reports in a short time, were on site with over 300 experts and our agencies, some of whom were affected by the accident ourselves, and not only looked after our customers psychologically, but also our employees."
floods in Australia
After heavy rainfall, thousands of people are currently having to leave their homes on the other side of the world because of flood warnings: areas around the eastern Australian city of Sydney have been flooded again.
Lower areas in the southwest of the metropolis were a good 1.50 meters under water on Sunday.
The New South Wales State Emergency Service recommended evacuations for some areas on its website and warned that rain should continue until at least Monday.
According to media reports, the Sydney area has already had four times as much rain as usual in the entire month of July.
ele/dpa