“Markus Lanz” is breaking new ground with a flood disaster special: The 90-minute debate is spread over two panel discussions with a total of nine guests.
Hamburg - Germany continues to be shocked by the flood disaster - "Markus Lanz" is therefore running on Tuesday evening as a 90-minute special format. Talk host Lanz welcomed the Mayor of Trier Wolfram Leibe (SPD) in the studio. He describes how the otherwise 80 centimeter high river Kyll arrived in his city as an eight meter high stream: “The water really came from all sides. It spilled over the wall and it spread out. In a very short time the village streets in the Ehring district were like a river and the current was so strong that even the lifeboats could not be used. "The shock of what I experienced is still in the bones:" This direct violence, that was unbelievable terrifying. Because you are at the mercy. "
Lanz would like to know in person whether he knew the early warnings of the European flood warning system Efas.
“Of course”, Leibe clarifies and explains why the worst could be prevented in Trier: “We also had the German Weather Service.
You have to assume: I have a professional fire brigade here that is extremely sensitive to such things.
And that's why we were able to start our rescue plans.
And despite all the misfortune, the catastrophe is huge: We have no injuries and we have no deaths in Trier. "
Floods and floods: “Markus Lanz” discusses whether the population could have been warned better?
“But why did the population not find out about it?” Lanz asks critically in the direction of the meteorologist Sven Plöger, who moderated the weather report in the first two days before the flood. Plöger explains that different meteorological models provide different forecasts: "And then as a meteorologist you think about it: How do I classify that?" From Plöger's point of view, starting from the worst possible case is not the right approach: "To stand up beforehand and drum and say, there is severe flooding, devastation, possibly death - people are very reluctant to do so. "
The geographer Beate Ratter also finds it “too easy to say now: You knew that. Why didn't you do it differently? ”Looking at the Kyll, she says:“ If you warn of river flooding - who would think about this little brook growing into such a catastrophe? ”Ratter felt“ like the 1962 storm surge in Hamburg remembers. There was also a warning that the right words were said. But it didn't work ”. This is exactly what Leibe had to complain about in Trier-Ehrang: “In Ehrang everyone said: I'm sure there has never been a flood on the Kyll for 100 years. And that led to the fact that at eight o'clock - I went from house to house myself and said you had to go out, there was a flood - many of us waved this aside and said: Oh what, nothing will happen. "
"Markus Lanz" - these were his guests on July 13th:
Wolfram Leibe (SPD) - Lord Mayor of Trier
Axel Bojanowski - journalist
Sven Plöger - meteorologist
Beate Ratter - geographer
Matthias Berger (independent) - Lord Mayor in Grimma
Andreas Geron (independent) - Lord Mayor in Sinzig
Dirk Steffens - journalist
Lamia Messari-Becker - civil engineer
Tina Rass - flood victim
A warning was also given in Sinzig, Saxony, from where Mayor Andreas Geron (non-party) is connected via video. His assessment: “There are maps with centenary and there are maps with bicentenary floods. This two hundred year flood would have ended about 150 meters from the flooded areas. That means that we are dealing with a flood that might represent a thousand or ten thousand year flood. ”The science journalist Axel Bojanowski, on the other hand, does not consider the amount of water to be exceptional:“ These amounts of rain are to be expected in Germany, they belong to the German climate. "He finds it" scandalous that both the Federal Chancellor, Federal President, everyone, today Laschet, as well as the Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, call for climate change for an event,which one simply has to reckon with in Germany ”. Geron strongly opposes: "From my point of view, this current situation was in no way predictable."
Bojanowski is partly right: “Climate change must not be a protective argument.
I think climate change is something we need to be aware of.
But it's also about prevention. ”“ The climate, ”intervenes Plöger,“ is the statistics of the weather.
And we are currently experiencing very clearly that the statistics for this weather are changing ”.
However, prevention is also a decisive factor for him: “There are a number of studies that say very clearly: Every euro that we do not invest in climate protection because we somehow think: is maybe expensive - we will get it when we are two Pay up to eleven euros. "
Flood protection pays off: Grimma's mayor reports on his experiences at “Markus Lanz”
The fact that politics is not making progress on prevention makes “Terra X” presenter Dirk Steffens “angry.” “For 30 years,” he says in the second half of the program, “we have been listening to this talk of delay and it has been happening for 30 years too little". For the civil engineer Lamia Messari-Becker, the main focus is on maintaining the critical infrastructure: "What can we do so that in such a case we have power supply, water supply, health care. Did Mr. Leibe say that it will stop, that we can do it?"
Grimma's mayor Matthias Berger (non-party) has already experienced several floods in his city. "It was one to one the same for us 20 years ago." One consequence of the Elbe flood in 2002 were preventive measures in Grimma: "We bought a very modern siren system immediately after the 2002 flood." to warn the population independently of electricity with siren tones and voice announcements: "We used this for the first time in 2013 with great success."
At the end of the program, Tina Rass, who was affected by the flood disaster, reports from a holiday home.
It is switched on via video and describes the flood night last week: “We were completely flooded.
We live on a small river, which is usually around 70 centimeters high, which was once about five meters.
We all didn't expect it to get out of hand.
We couldn't save anything either, we could only save ourselves. "She had not been warned, the fire brigade was also overwhelmed:" You had to react for yourself. "
“Markus Lanz” - the conclusion of the show
“Markus Lanz” closes the ZDF themed evening “Flood Disaster” with a special on Tuesday evening and reinvents its own concept for an evening: After the first half of the program, Trier's mayor Wolfram Leibe (SPD), geographer Beate Ratter and the meteorologist leave Sven Plöger take their seats and are replaced by journalist Dirk Steffens, civil engineer Lamia Messari-Becker and Grimmas mayor Matthias Berger (non-party). The journalist Axel Bojanowski is allowed to remain seated and take part in both discussion rounds, but holds back in the second round. Sinzig's mayor Andreas Geron (non-party) and the flood victim Tina Rass are also connected via video.
