Lewentz: operations management in flood night "only at a loss"

Created: 09/23/2022Updated: 09/23/2022, 21:20

Roger Lewentz (SPD), Interior Minister of Rhineland-Palatinate.

© Arne Dedert/dpa/archive image

The interior minister comments on the opposition's allegations in the committee of inquiry into the flood disaster.

It is also about the question of whether the country should have taken over the command of operations on the night of the disaster.

Mainz - According to Interior Minister Roger Lewentz, it would not have been possible for the state's supervisory and service department (ADD) to take over command of the operation on the night of the flooding "without losses".

"A takeover doesn't happen at the push of a button," said the SPD politician on Friday evening in the state parliament's investigative committee on the flood disaster in Mainz.

"If the ADD took over the mission, it would not have been possible to save a single helicopter," said Lewentz in his opening statement, which lasted around 50 minutes.

"The ADD should have provided assistance with the same people as the technical operations center."

There is no example in Germany of a non-city state taking over responsibility for operations from the local authorities in such an emergency.

Rather, all experts, including the district council, always emphasized how important local knowledge is when dealing with such emergencies, said Lewentz.

"Like everyone involved, I didn't have a complete picture of the situation on the night of the flood," he added.

"It took days for an overall picture to be more or less certain, which is certainly not surprising in view of this catastrophe," emphasized Lewentz.

"There was no reason to assume that the district administrator or the technical operations management could have been overwhelmed."

The CDU politicians Christian Baldauf, Julia Klöckner and Mechthild Heil only realized on July 17 that the then District Administrator Jürgen Pföhler (CDU) could no longer handle the situation alone.

All three called him that day and asked him to convince Pföhler that the state should take over the command of the operation.

On the night of the flood disaster, after visiting the Technical Operations Center in Ahrweiler, he drove home to his office and was “available and approachable all the time” by telephone.

"I was by no means eating schnitzel, as was slanderously claimed." "When I was there, neither the management nor the staff seemed overwhelmed," said Lewentz.

At 7.45 p.m. he was said goodbye to Pföhler.

At that time there was no talk of a tidal wave or flash flood.

Around 11:00 p.m. he first received the message that six houses in the Ahr village of Schuld had collapsed.

For the first time, there was talk of missing people and possibly even death, said the minister.

There were also reports of districts in the Eifel and in the city of Trier that were also affected by heavy rain, where the situation also appeared very dangerous.

However, he knew that the emergency services were on their way and would be supported by the ADD, which is subordinate to his ministry.

On the way back from the technical operations center in Ahrweiler, he phoned the local reporter Willi Willig, among others, but has no memory of having spoken to him about a house in debt.

"I don't know where I should have gotten the information from either" and why he should have kept it secret in other phone calls while driving - including with Prime Minister Malu Dreyer (SPD).

As a witness in the investigative committee, Willig testified that Lewentz had told him about a "collapsed, damaged, washed away house" in Ahrort during the call at around 7:45 p.m.

At least 135 people died in the flood disaster around 14 months ago in northern Rhineland-Palatinate, including 134 in the Ahr Valley.

766 people were injured.

Roads, bridges, gas, electricity and water lines and around 9,000 buildings were destroyed or badly damaged over a length of 40 kilometers along the Ahr.

Around 42,000 people are affected in the Ahr Valley alone, and around 65,000 nationwide. Many still live in alternative quarters.

dpa