Ahrweiler, Germany: Like other residents in his city in Germany, Wolfgang Huste knew the flood would come.
Nobody told him, he said, how bad it was.
The 66-year-old antique seller in Ahrweiler said the first serious warning to displaced or moved to a higher building floor close to the AHR River came through the announcement of the loudspeaker around 8pm on July 14.
Huste then heard the explosion of emergency sirens and church bells rang, followed by silence.
“It’s spooky, like in a horror film,” he said.
Huste hurried to save his car from the underground garage.
When he parked it on the road, water stands high knee.
Five minutes later, in the room safely, he saw his vehicle floating on the road.
He will study later that he also lost a book originating from the early 1500s and estimates the total losses with more than 200,000 euros ($ 235,000).
“The warning time is too short,” Huste said.
With the death toll confirmed from floods last week in Germany and neighboring countries past 210 on Friday and economic costs are expected to experience billions, others in Germany have asked why an emergency system designed to warn people from the upcoming disaster not successful .
Sirens in several cities fail when electricity is cut.
In other locations, there is no siren at all; Voluntary firefighters must knock on the door of the person to tell them what to do.
Huste admitted that a few could predict the speed of water would rise.
But he pointed to a valley to a building that accommodated the German federal office for civil protection, where the first respondents from all trains for the possibility of a disaster.
“In practice, as we just saw, it didn’t work, say, as good as it should be,” Huste said.
“What the state should do, it doesn’t work.
At least it doesn’t arrive later,” he said.
Local officials who were responsible for triggering disaster alarms in the AHR valley on the first night of the flood had saved a low profile on the days since the flood.
At least 132 people in the AHR valley alone.
The authorities in the country of Rhineland-Palatinate took over the disaster response after the flood, but they refused Friday to comment on what mistakes might be done on a disaster of the night hit.
“People see life in the ruins here.
Some lose relatives, there are many who die,” said Thomas Linnertz, state officials now coordinate disaster response.
“I can understand anger very well.
But on the other hand, I have to say again: This is an event that can’t be expected by anyone.” The head of the German Federal Disaster Agency BKK, Armin Schuster, admitted to Ard public broadcaster this week that “things don’t work as well as they have.” His body tried to determine how many sirens were eliminated after the end of the Cold War, and the state planned to adopt a system known as the ‘cell broadcast’ which could send warnings to all cellphones in certain areas.
In the city of Sinzig, Resident Heiko Lemke remembered how firefighters came knocking on the door at 2am, long after the flood had caused severe damage to Ahrweiler.
Despite the flood in 2016, no one expects AHR waters to rise as high as they did in his community last week, said Lemke.
(Move this because if not, it is not clear what they think is impossible).
“They evacuated people,” he said.
“We were really confused because we thought it was impossible.” Within 20 minutes the water has flooded the ground floor of his family’s house, but they decided it was too dangerous to get out, he said.
“We will not succeed in making it round,” said his wife, Daniela Lemke.
Twelve residents of the nearest assisted living facilities for people with disabilities who sank in the flood.
The police investigated whether the staff at the facility could do more to save the population, but so far there was no suggestion that the authorities could face criminal investigations for failing to issue a warning on time.
Experts say such floods will become more frequent and severe because of climate change, and countries need to adapt, including by revising the calculation of the risk of flooding in the future, improving the warning system and preparing populations for similar disasters.
Now he knows the risk of flooding, Heiko Lemke hopes that things will happen.
“But it might be better away,” he said.