The devastating floods that hit Germany recently struck quickly.<\/b>
\nLike other residents of his town in Germany, Wolfgang Huste knew a flood was coming. What nobody told him, he says, was how bad it would be. The 66-year-old antiquarian bookseller from Ahrweiler said the first serious warning to evacuate or move to higher floors of buildings close to the Ahr River came through loudspeaker announcements around 8 p.m. on July 14. Huste then heard a short emergency siren blast and church bells ringing, followed by silence. \u201cIt was spooky, like in a horror film,\u201d he said. Huste rushed to rescue his car from an underground garage. By the time he parked it on the street, the water stood knee height. Five minutes later, safely indoors, he saw his vehicle floating down the street. He estimates the losses in his store, where books dating back to the early 1500s were destroyed, at more than 200,000 euros ($235,000). \u201cThe warning time was far too short,\u201d Huste said. With the confirmed death toll from last week\u2019s floods in Germany and neighboring countries passing 210, almost 150 people still missing and the economic cost expected to run into the billions, many have asked why the emergency systems designed to warn people of impending disaster didn\u2019t work. Sirens in some towns failed when the electricity was cut. In other locations, there were no sirens at all; volunteer firefighters had to knock on people\u2019s doors to tell them what to do. The German weekly Der Spiegel reported that in one suburb of Wuppertal, north of Cologne, people were warned by a monk ringing a bell. Huste acknowledged that few could have predicted the speed with which the water would rise and rip through towns. But he pointed across the valley to a building that houses Germany\u2019s Federal Office for Civil Protection, where first responders from across the country train for possible disasters. \u201cIn practice, as we just saw, it didn\u2019t work, let\u2019s say, as well as it should,\u201d Huste said. \u201cWhat the state should have done, it didn\u2019t do. At least not until much later.\u201d German authorities did receive early warnings from the European Flood Awareness System. These made their way through official channels, putting firefighters on heightened alert as well as smartphone users who had installed disaster warning apps, but such apps aren\u2019t widely used. Local officials responsible for triggering disaster alarms in the Ahr valley on the first night of flooding have kept a low profile since the deluge. At least 132 people were killed in the Ahr valley alone. Authorities in Germany\u2019s Rhineland-Palatinate state took charge of the disaster response in the wake of the floods, but they declined to comment on what mistakes might have been made on the night the disaster struck. \u201cPeople are looking at a life in ruins here. Some have lost relatives, there were many dead,\u201d said Thomas Linnertz, the state official now coordinating the disaster response. \u201cI can understand the anger very well. But on the other hand, I have to say again: This was an event that nobody could have predicted.\u201d The head of Germany\u2019s federal disaster agency BKK, Armin Schuster, acknowledged to public broadcaster ARD that \u201cthings didn\u2019t work as well as they could have.\u201d His agency is trying to determine how many sirens were removed after the end of the Cold War. Germany also plans to adopt a system known as \u2018cell broadcast\u2019 that can send alerts to all cellphones in a particular area. In the town of Sinzig, Heiko Lemke recalled how firefighters came knocking on doors at 2 a.m., long after the floods had caused severe damage upriver in Ahrweiler. Despite a heavy flood in 2016, nobody had expected the waters of the Ahr River to rise as high as they did in his community, Lemke said. \u201cThey were evacuating people,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were totally confused because we thought that wasn\u2019t possible.\u201d Within 20 minutes, water had flooded the ground floor of his family\u2019s house, but they decided it was too dangerous to venture out, he said. \u201cWe wouldn\u2019t have managed to make it around the corner,\u201d said his wife, Daniela Lemke. Twelve residents of a nearby assisted living facility for people with disabilities drowned in the flood. Police are probing whether staff at the facility could have done more to save the residents, but so far there is no suggestion that authorities could face a criminal investigation for failing to issue timely warnings. Experts say such floods will become more frequent and severe due to climate change, and countries will need to adapt, including by revising calculations about future flood risks, improving warning systems and preparing people for similar disasters. Now that he knows about the flood risk, Heiko Lemke hopes all those things will happen. \u201cBut maybe it would be even better to leave,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n