STEINBACHTAL DAM, Germany (Reuters) – German interior minister Horst Seehofer rejected criticism that the government had failed to warn the population of last week’s deadly floods, which killed more than 160 people in Germany alone, saying that flood warnings were up to local authorities.
“It would be completely inconceivable for such a catastrophe to be managed centrally from any one place. You need local knowledge,” he told journalists on Monday.
The European floods, which began on Wednesday, have mainly hit the German states of Rhineland Palatinate, North Rhine-Westphalia as well as parts of Belgium.
Entire communities were cut off, without power or communications. Residents were trapped inside their homes by flash floods, and a number of houses collapsed.
Seehofer visited the Steinbachtal dam on Monday, which had been at risk of breach for several days. He is due to visit the worst-hit Ahrweiler district south of Cologne later, where at least 117 people have been killed.
(Reporting by Reuters TV; Writing by Maria Sheahan, editing by Kirsti Knolle)
