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Flood anniversary triggers mourning and soul searching in Germany – International News News – Report by AFR

Germany on Thursday will remember more than 180 people killed in severe flooding a year ago as concerns mount about climate change and the country tries to overhaul its planning for future disasters.

Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier goes on a tour through the Ahr Valley, Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz attends a commemoration event in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, which was badly affected.

A number of actions are also planned in neighboring Belgium, where 39 people died in the flood.

Severe flooding hit parts of the German Rhineland for two days in July last year, sweeping away entire towns and villages and destroying bridges, roads, railways and entire residential buildings.

According to the German Weather Service, between 100 and 150 millimeters of rain fell between July 14 and 15 – an amount that would normally be seen in two months.

Meteorologists had issued warnings, but many residents were simply unaware of the risks of such severe flooding, and dozens were found dead in their basements.

The disaster sparked criticism of Germany’s flood warning system and criminal proceedings were launched against local officials for “negligent manslaughter”.

The government has since pledged to introduce “cellular” phone alerts and reinstall sirens, many of which have been switched off in recent years.

– ‘Big mistake’ –

Home Secretary Nancy Faeser unveiled a new disaster preparedness plan on Wednesday, acknowledging there have been “major failures” over the past few years and decades.

The government is planning a new annual disaster protection day from 2023 to raise awareness of what to do in the event of a disaster and “make our country more crisis-proof,” said Faeser.

The disaster also raised concerns about climate change, with an international study showing that human-caused global warming had increased the likelihood of flooding by up to nine times.

A year later, Germany is expecting more extreme weather conditions, with temperatures reaching 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) expected this week as a heatwave sweeps across Europe.

Ralph Tiesler, President of the Federal Office for Disaster Management BBK, told the Funke media group on Wednesday that he assumes that some areas in Germany could become uninhabitable due to extreme weather events.

“I am saying that some areas should not be resettled due to climate change and the acute threat of severe weather and flooding,” he said.

Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, a town of 30,000 people known for its spa and wellness tourism, was one of the areas hardest hit by the floods.

Over 2,000 people have since fled the city, but the majority have chosen to stay and rebuild their homes – even if promised help has been slow to arrive.

– Aid Package –

A return to the old state “will take time,” said Mayor Guido Orthen of the AFP news agency, the reconstruction is still in full swing.

“We still have makeshift infrastructure, makeshift playgrounds, makeshift schools, makeshift roads that make life possible,” he said.

While former Chancellor Angela Merkel was still in charge at the time of the floods, the government pledged a total of €30 billion in federal and state aid to help with reconstruction.

But in Rhineland-Palatinate, only 500 million euros of a total of 15 billion euros were distributed in aid.

In neighboring North Rhine-Westphalia, state subsidies totaling 1.6 billion euros were approved out of a total of 12.3 billion euros.

Frustration builds in those trying to rebuild their lives.

“We want to stand up in the eyes of Germany,” Iris Münn-Buschow told the AFP news agency from the run-down ground floor of her house in Sinzig.

“We have the impression that everything else that happens in the world is more important than what happens here in Germany,” she said.

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