Ms. Weigand, you were mayor of Altenahr during the flood disaster, and at the beginning of the year you were elected district administrator for the Ahrweiler district.

If another heavy rain event is announced - would you be prepared?

Tobias Schrors

political editor.

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Timo Steppat

Editor in Politics.

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To answer the question, I have to backtrack.

When it comes to natural disasters, in most federal states, including Rhineland-Palatinate, the district administrators are responsible for assessing and averting danger.

Depending on the size of the district, you as district administrator are responsible for the weal and woe of 50,000 to 250,000 people in such a situation.

Let me make a comparison: where I expect terrorist attacks, there are people at the federal level who do nothing but observe and assess the situation.

If there is an indication of danger, these authorities take immediate action.

When it comes to the weather, however, cryptic messages are sent, after which nobody really knows what exactly is going on.

You are playing on the warnings of the State Office for the Environment in Rhineland-Palatinate on the day of the flood.

There were forecasts of water levels that arrived relatively late and were poorly communicated.

Volunteer civil protection workers must evaluate these forecast reports together with municipal administration officials.

This is how a crisis team works at district level.

It works well in "normal" situations such as a major car accident or a small forest fire, for which the system was originally conceived.

But in view of climate change, we will have to deal with more frequent and larger extreme weather events and their consequences.

Too much responsibility for the counties?

It's not about responsibility, it's about the fact that we are dealing with disasters that can take on national proportions in a very short time.

That's why the federal and state governments always have to be involved when it comes to extreme weather such as heavy rain and tornadoes.

They must guarantee professional monitoring and management of the situation and not only intervene when it is too late.

In Rhineland-Palatinate, the law stipulates that the crisis management team must first ask the state to take over the situation.

Today we know that the district of Ahrweiler did that much too late.

More than 130 people died in the night of July 14th to 15th in the Ahr Valley alone.

The procedure that the district first has to ask for help is absurd.

Imagine you are involved in a serious traffic accident, you are badly injured and bleeding profusely on the side of the road - and everyone is driving past you, you have to call the emergency doctor yourself, nobody will do it for you.

This can not be!

We need better mechanisms for the state and federal government to intervene automatically.

Should the state authorities have intervened earlier and of their own accord?

It may be that the information was missing.

The technical operations management in Ahrweiler was overwhelmed by the situation.

But the integrated control center in Koblenz, where the countless emergency calls were received, could have warned the state: "A catastrophe is happening here, do something!" Overall, the state should have acted differently.