Floods in Germany: admitting the failures of the warning system | There are already 165 dead

The government of Germany reported that, so far, 165 people have died produced floods in the west of this country and admitted failures in the population warning systems. The disaster also left many missing which so far could not be quantified.

Only in the Rhineland-Palatinate region, the most affected by the disaster, “the death toll is now 117” and there are 749 injured, said Verena Scheuer, spokeswoman for the Koblenz police.

At North Rhine-WestphaliaThe latest report published on Sunday reports at least 47 dead, while in Bavaria, in the south of the country, one person has died.

Germany still shocked by biggest natural disaster in recent history of the country and the provisional record of the floods have left the Minister of the Interior, Horst Seehofer, at the center of a controversy over a failure of the alerts, for not having alerted the population in danger quickly enough.

The criticisms were of such magnitude that the government of Angela Merkel He promised to improve the national disaster warning system. Some proposals speak of a return to “the old sirens”.

Alert systems, such as the ‘Nina’ mobile phone app, ‘worked, but the experience we had during this disaster shows that we must do more and faster, “admitted Martina Fietz, government spokeswoman.

Sirens instead of apps

The president of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance, Armin Schuster, has defended “the return to old sirens” so as not to leave everything in the hands of digital tools, since the floods caused massive power cuts and the fall of telecommunications antennas.

On Sunday Merkel visited the town of Schuld, not far from Bonn, where the rise of the Ahr river destroyed part of the historic center. “The German language is struggling to find the words to describe the devastation that has been caused”said the president, who described a situation “surreal” and promised help from the federal state.

From Wednesday, the government will deliver emergency aid of at least 300 million euros (around 350 million dollars), before drawing up a vast reconstruction program of several billion euros.

Meanwhile, in Belgium, where until yesterday there were 31 dead, he is still looking for “163 citizens”, according to the crisis center, while the Netherlands and Luxembourg have suffered from significant material damage.