The full extent of a flood disaster can often only be assessed with a little distance: Where is the damage most severe?
What can be rebuilt, what is irretrievably lost?
And where is better provision needed in the future?
During election campaign times, there is another, unsavory question: Who benefits, who loses the electorate's reputation?
It became clear in 2002 that floods can even have a significant impact on election campaigns.
Before the Elbe and Danube overflowed their banks, challenger Edmund Stoiber had a chance at the Chancellery.
The fact that Chancellor Gerhard Schröder quickly rushed to the disaster area and successfully showed himself to be a carer on the spot turned the situation decisively.
"Of course, the dramatic flood situation shortly before the 2002 federal elections was an important factor in Gerhard Schröder's later election victory," says Stoiber in retrospect.
And this year?
The race for the Chancellery in 2021 will be conducted under completely different auspices, there is no official bonus and with the current flood, unlike 20 years ago, a completely different factor plays a role, the climate crisis.
Immediately after the first shocking news, especially from Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia, observers were certain that climate change would now dominate the election campaign with force.
The Greens, it was said, had their topic back.
Indeed, researchers see connections between the July drama and the warming of the planet.
Nevertheless, it seems a few weeks apart, the climate crisis remains only one of many topics for the election on September 26th.
Why is that?
We are discussing this this week in the »Climate Report«, the new weekly SPIEGEL podcast on the climate crisis, which appears every Tuesday, on SPIEGEL.de and wherever there are podcasts.
The guest is Melanie Amann, she is the head of the Berlin office and a member of the editorial board of SPIEGEL.
We also clarify the question of what we can say about the connection between floods and climate change and what the future prospects are.
Curious?
Then you will now hear our »Climate Report«.