Deadly floods in Germany: crisis management criticized
Audio 01:17
Bad Neuenahr, in western Germany, on July 17, 2021, after the devastating floods.
AFP - CHRISTOF STACHE
Text by: RFI Follow
4 min
The unprecedented floods that hit Europe were particularly severe in Germany, with a very high human toll of at least 141 dead.
Chancellor Merkel is going to the site this Sunday, July 19.
People in the affected areas live or survive in devastated towns and villages.
Meeting with a couple from Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, a martyred town in western Germany, who criticize the management of the crisis and ask that lessons be learned for the future.
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With our special correspondent in Bad Neuenahr,
Pascal Thibault
Lydia Häufele and Bernhard Jans, who live on the fourth floor of a building in Bad Neuenahr, are not homeless, but they have preferred to flee the stress to find refuge for a few days in a hotel near their home.
The couple criticize the lack of information before the disaster.
“
We already knew that in other towns along the river the water was rising,”
says Lydia, “
and I think those responsible must have known what threat existed and we were not warned.
"
For Bernhard Jans, the payment of aid is not enough: “
This city will not be able to come back to life in the coming years.
If concepts for the future are not presented quickly, people will have to leave and so will we.
"
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See also:
Floods in Germany: policies on the climate front and the next elections
For Lydia Häufele, global warming cannot be suppressed if we want to prevent such a catastrophe from happening again: “
We cannot rebuild the city every five years after floods.
It would be better to think about how to build and where in the future to avoid that a rise in water of two meters creates a disaster.
"
In the short term, Lydia wonders.
Will the couple be able to return to their apartment in a few days?
The mother of friends was evacuated due to the risk of epidemics.
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