The crisis team in the Ahrweiler district affected by the flood disaster was warned precisely of the enormous flood that devastated the Ahr valley on the night of July 15.

In addition to information published online, the district administration received several automated e-mails from the responsible state office for the environment in the course of the evening, in which the forecast enormous water level of almost seven meters was reported.

That said, a spokesman for the state office of the FAZ. Nevertheless, the district did not call the disaster until late in the evening and initially did not initiate an evacuation.

Julian Staib

Political correspondent for Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland based in Wiesbaden.

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On the night of July 15, water masses devastated the Ahr valley.

135 people died, 766 were injured, 59 are still missing.

The floods caught most people off guard.

The State Office for the Environment published forecasts on the afternoon of July 14th that far exceeded the level of the so-called century flood of 2016 (3.7 meters).

The district administration was informed directly

In the early evening, the state office now forecast a somewhat reduced water level. The district administrator of the Ahrweiler district, Jürgen Pföhler (CDU), who was responsible for disaster control, recently cited this brief correction as an explanation for why there was initially no evacuation. However, shortly afterwards the state office raised the forecast again. As the FAZ now learned, it also informed the district administration at 9:26 p.m. that a level of 6.9 meters was to be expected in Altenahr - which was more or less the case later. Nevertheless, the disaster was only declared after 11 p.m. and a partial evacuation was ordered. But by then the water masses were already too high.

People could rely on the evening being “worked up exactly”, said State Interior Minister Roger Lewentz (SPD) on Friday. He was on the crisis team himself that evening. A spokesman for the Ministry of the Interior pointed out that the responsible operations management had been with the district administration and therefore only they could answer the question why the evacuation was not carried out earlier. District Administrator Pföhler left several inquiries unanswered.