We went down a long mountain serpentine. We drove carefully - somewhere the road was washed away, trees fell down. Mudflows fell from above, and from below the village was covered by a tsunami - waves two or three meters high mixed with debris and branches. All this mass rushed directly to the houses, leaving no chance of salvation. Some have collapsed, some have been washed through so that the walls barely stand, they will also have to be demolished. The feeling that, together with the elements, everything began to move: the bridges were splitting, falling apart, the asphalt was slipping, as if pieces of it had been put on ice. At such moments, you understand the insignificance of man in front of nature.
And so we make our way through bulldozers, mud and very tense, nervous people. Everyone has no time, everyone is angry. Journalists for them are like annoying flies that only get in the way. We stand and gaze at what was once home. In the middle of the wreckage is an inverted piano, somewhere wet, but somehow miraculously preserved children's books. Probably, they would be read in the evening before going to bed, wrapping the child in a blanket in a warm crib. And now no crib, no room - nothing. Everything is destroyed. Someone just finished the renovation, made plans, invested. And so, in a couple of hours, the whole past life is crossed out. And you have to start from scratch. And how to do this for a grandma who is 73? She did not hesitate to cry, she said that she was disappointed in this life, because now she had nothing left. And here she stands in the middle of the mud, her feet in the silt ... Where can she go?
More than one and a half hundred dead. Just think about it, because behind every number there is someone's tragedy! A 15-year-old girl was carried away from the children's camp in front of her friends - they were fooling around, playing with the stream. Her body was found several days later. Someone himself jumped into the water with an inflatable ring, also drowned. One thing is obvious: people did not understand all the danger, did not realize it, did not expect that everything would be like this. Doesn't it rain in summer? The meteorologists knew, they issued their warnings, which never went anywhere further. What are you creating panic, they asked. Will pour and stop. Just think. But it was worth thinking. At least people could have been saved.
The flood began at night. Everyone slept, then swam. There were those who tried to leave at the last moment by car, and the bodies were then found inside. Someone decided to hide in the basement, someone was found in the parking lot. Complete misunderstanding of how to act in such a situation. They didn't tell. But they could interrupt broadcasts, send armfuls of SMS (although the connection was also quickly closed). There were isolated cases when fire engines notified the population that heavy rain was coming. Well, rain and rain, but why, where to run? This was just not said.
As for me, a very significant moment took place in the Netherlands. Until recently, everyone sat and waited for what would happen to the dam, whether it would overflow or not. And then a crack formed in it, water flowed through it, and only then an emergency message was issued that it was necessary to immediately evacuate, throw all things at home and take away your feet, after turning off the gas and turning off the electrical appliances. And then on one of the TV channels a message came out that it was too late to run, you had to climb onto the roofs, and sit there all night. I can imagine what was going on in people's heads, what a mess and confusion. It was not enough to turn on the siren for complete horror. By the way, the siren worked in already flooded cities. The main thing is on time.
In general, it is surprising that in such developed, technologically advanced countries of Western Europe, everything happened like this.
It is somehow familiar to us: if something happens, the almighty Ministry of Emergency Situations immediately appears, equipment, sandbags, people, maps, plans ... Some kind of predictability and a feeling that these guys can be relied on, they know what to do, they will pull out , will be saved.
Belgium, of course, is smaller, but what was my surprise when I learned that they have only two (!) Stations of such an Emergencies Ministry in the whole country.
There were six, but in 2017 they decided to cut it: rarely when natural disasters happen, you can save money.
They also save money on fire departments.
There are only a third of professional firefighters, and the rest are volunteers.
They are called by two or three people in the car, including the driver, there are simply no people.
Yes, this is a violation of the established rules, but what to do?
The equipment is also scarce, the boats are weak, even the army did not have the required quantity and the required capacities.
It's unthinkable.
How is it, Europe?
As if there had never been a flood here.
But there were, and how many times they sent various equipment abroad to help others.
This, by the way, was done in NATO.
In Belgium, the headquarters of the North Atlantic Alliance.
It has a special emergency response center, including natural ones.
Help through it was provided, for example, to Pakistan when it was drowned in 2010, Albania in 2017, and Ukraine in 2020.
And somehow, solidarity did not spread to their own people.
Probably, an official request was not sent from Brussels to Brussels in time, and then summer, vacations ... We did not notice the floods nearby. Then they found someone to lower the flag as a sign of solidarity with the nationwide mourning announced in the kingdom. So the Belgians mostly relied on their own strength.
Moreover, the sense of solidarity here is very strong, seasoned with a good sense of humor. Someone chilled crates of beer in water on the flooded first floor, they were glad that at least on the second floor one could sit in a friendly company. Then they dragged rubber boats up to their throats in the water with their hands, they themselves rescued pets and neighbors taken by surprise, they joked that for each such flight they would take a bottle of intoxicating drink. We tried not to lose heart, although, of course, it is very difficult. Three dozen dead and dozens of missing persons for a small kingdom is a lot.
In Germany, the numbers are generally outrageous. But for some reason there is no mourning there. The election campaign is in full swing there, and it is felt very much, even though the press tries to devote all the pages to the flood victims. But every gesture, every statement of a politician is made with an eye to the effect it will have on the election campaign. The inappropriate laughter of Chancellor challenger Armin Laschet, whose North Rhine-Westphalia land suffered the most, hit his ratings. Chancellor Merkel also traveled to the affected areas. Greens are talking about global warming. But this is somehow not about that.
The main thing is that it was possible to save people.
To do this, you do not need to drive electric cars on a canvas made of solar panels with wind turbines on the roof.
In the first deep puddle, such a thing will short-circuit and stop.
And where will they charge it when there is no light in the entire flooded area?
(Europe plans to abandon petrol and diesel cars altogether.)
There is not even drinking water, the connection is disconnected, the cables are broken.
And what will these people do with their electrical appliances?
Adjust the electric bulldozer to clear the rubble?
Or will the transition to "electric everything" abruptly stop the rains all over the world?
Turn off the heat?
Of course, taking care of the environment is necessary and important, but in this context, all this is more like a desire to hyip on someone else's tragedy that has turned up before the elections.
If we really talk about ecology, then the alarm should be sounded on another occasion.
Wherever we worked these days, a very strong, pungent smell of fuel oil and fuel was felt everywhere.
In principle, it is logical: how many cars have sunk, motorcycles, gas stations.
On the surface of the water, this film of oil products was visible, strike with a match - it will flare up.
And now all this has fallen into the rivers, it will also be absorbed into the ground, into the agricultural fields, where they were about to harvest.
Of course, little is left of him.
There will be no bread of our own, prices will probably go up.
But the main thing is that the pollution will not go anywhere.
Here's what to clean.
But ecologists somehow do not speak about this.
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There was only a small note in Belgium on the topic of the fact that the land could be poisoned for the next few years, eating food grown on it could be dangerous to health.
And then there's the promise of new rains next week just in the affected areas, which will take several years to recover.
The Belgian authorities say they will learn a lesson from this tragedy.
I would like to believe that the Germans will do the same and Europe will no longer become an example of how in the event of natural disasters it is by no means necessary to do it.
The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.