In order to explain how the devastating consequences of the floods in the Ahr valley could come about, the Rhineland-Palatinate state government has always referred to the extraordinary nature of the event.

Germany has never experienced a flood disaster of such magnitude, said Prime Minister Malu Dreyer (SPD) also on Tuesday at the special session of the state parliament on the flood disaster.

It has never rained so much in such a short time.

According to the will of the traffic light coalition, lessons from the disaster are to be drawn by means of a commission of inquiry, which the state parliament decided to set up on Tuesday.

Julian Staib

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

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But quick answers, for example to the question of why there were hardly any warnings about the catastrophe in the Ahr Valley, should not be expected from the Commission.

She should not present a report to the state parliament until mid-2023.

In addition, many of the answers are likely to be vague, as the Commission's mandate is broad.

In the application for appointment there is much talk of optimization and further development;

the commission should make recommendations for better civil protection, for environmentally friendly building, but also for more climate protection.

Have warnings been ignored?

The CDU and the Free Voters supported the establishment. But in the opposition there are doubts that a commission of inquiry will do much to clarify the question of who is to blame for an allegedly inadequate warning of the population. In order to honestly process the results, a parliamentary committee of inquiry is needed, said the CDU parliamentary group leader Christian Baldauf on Tuesday. Soon the state government attacked sharply and criticized the "surprisingly quick" statements by Dreyer, but also by Interior Minister Roger Lewentz (SPD), who had spoken of a "momentary explosion of the water" after the flood. It is questionable whether it was actually a mere stroke of fate or not "a catastrophe with an announcement," said Baldauf.

In addition to the actions of the state government, an investigation committee should also focus on that of the responsible district administrator of the Ahrweiler district. Jürgen Pföhler (CDU) is currently not exercising his office; the public prosecutor is investigating him because of the initial suspicion of negligent homicide and negligent bodily harm through negligence. It is possible that the crisis team under his control ignored warnings about the water masses. They existed days before the disaster. On the day itself, July 14th, the State Environment Office then issued a detailed warning to the District Office of enormous water levels, but the district did not try to get people to safety until after 11 p.m. Interior Minister Lewentz was in the district's operations center on the evening of the disaster. It remains to be seen whether and - if so - why he too did not hear the warnings.

There are also many open questions about the State Environment Agency.

Apparently, even the competent authority overlooked its own warnings.

On the afternoon of July 14th, the President of the State Environment Agency, Sabine Riewenherm, and the Rhineland-Palatinate Environment Minister Anne Spiegel (Greens) announced in a press release that the flood situation was "tense", but that there was "no extreme flood".

At the time, the State Environment Agency had already warned of a water level in Altenahr of more than five meters - which would have been an extreme flood, since it was well above the “flood of the century” of 2016. In the end, it was even around two meters more.

"Serious misunderstanding of the situation"

On Tuesday, Baldauf referred to the press release and spoke of a "fatal, serious misunderstanding of the situation". The state government may have "left the bridge in a storm". There was a "fatal omission", said Baldauf. The SPD parliamentary group leader Sabine Bätzing-Lichtenthäler accused him of “completely inappropriate rhetoric”; the more the CDU polls went down, the more aggressively representatives of the party expressed themselves on the flood disaster. The CDU is trying to "capitalize on all sorts of political debates". The leader of the Greens, Bernhard Braun, accused Baldauf of arguing “outrageously” and “underhanded”.

The CDU now wants to apply for a committee of inquiry to be set up at the end of September. A draft of the appointment resolution is also to be submitted to the parliamentary groups of the traffic light coalition in order to possibly bring the motion together in parliament. But the CDU parliamentary group alone has the number of at least one fifth of the 101 members of the state parliament that is necessary for an appointment. In the committee of inquiry it is then possible - unlike a commission of inquiry - to summon witnesses and inspect files.