District administrators are greetings at shooting festivals - no impression could be more wrong.
In times of need, when life and death are at stake, they are the first on-site crisis managers.
Fortunately, district administrators do not live in permanent crisis mode.
But in the event of an emergency, such as the masses of water in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate with tremendous, devastating impact on so many people's lives, they have to act.
Therefore, in addition to the practical help in the devastated places, it is now a matter of clarifying whether there has been an institutional or personal failure - and to draw any consequences.
The district administrator of the Ahr valley, where there were currently 134 deaths from the floods and massive destruction, must explain as quickly as possible why the precise predictions regarding the water masses were not responded to quickly and appropriately.
The danger posed by floods must not be forgotten, even once the most visible damage has been removed.
That applies to politics and the public.
It is correct that the parliamentary groups of the FDP and the Greens are calling for an early special session of the Bundestag on the flood. Flood warning and aid should continue to be organized on a decentralized basis. But the federal government can apply pressure: so that every district administrator is aware of his responsibility in an emergency.