Five Years After the Flood Disaster: NRW Commemorates the Victims

Particularly hard hit were the narrow valleys of the low mountain ranges, such as the Bergisches Land and the Eifel. The German Weather Service had issued warnings, yet „Regen allein erscheint, zu diesem Zeitpunkt, den Wenigsten als eine echte Bedrohung". Precipitation in NRW reached „100, örtlich sogar bis zu 200 Liter pro Quadratmeter", significantly exceeding the usual July totals. In the Ahr catchment area, an average of 94.5 liters per square meter fell on July 14, 2021 — more than the average total for the entire month of July since 1990.

Climate Change as a Driver: "A Wetter Future"

The image of a collapsed cliff edge in Erftstadt-Blessem became iconic of the disaster. Several dams in NRW overflowed; people were rescued from houses by boat and helicopter, buildings collapsed, and power outages affected wide areas. In Altena, a 46-year-old firefighter drowned in the evening when rushing water swept his legs away as he tried to rescue another person. The Bundeswehr deployed two armored recovery vehicles to Hagen, and in Würselen, the roof of a shopping center collapsed under the rain.

WDR weather expert Jürgen Vogt attributed the volume of rainfall to climate change: „Durch den Klimawandel steigen die Temperaturen, und für jedes Grad Erderwärmung, kann die Atmosphäre 7 Prozent mehr Wasser aufnehmen." He added: „Eine wärmere Zukunft wird auch eine feuchtere Zukunft sein", and expects a significant increase in heavy rainfall events. The head of the Flood Information Service at the NRW State Agency for Nature, Environment and Consumer Protection described the situation as „absolut ungewöhnlich" and „sehr ernstzunehmend".

Destinies Five Years On: From Bookshop to Building Site

The rebuilding process continues to this day. Bookshop owner Josef Mütter from Bad Münstereifel is fighting to rebuild his livelihood after the flood destroyed his shop. Löre Linke's Schieferhaus in Wuppertal-Beyenburg was flooded; she subsequently lived for months on a building site while waiting for reconstruction aid. In Solingen-Unterburg, Marvin Oberlies spent weeks independently clearing mud, debris, driftwood, and trash from the neighborhood — interrupted only by a hospital stay for a brain tumor operation. Rheinbach and Schleiden also count among the places where residents lost everything.

„Heute vor fünf Jahren brach nach einem ebenfalls heißen Juli die Flutkatastrophe über das Ahrtal herein", bilanziert der Blog zur Jubiläumsausgabe. „Insgesamt hat die Flutkatastrophe und ihre Folgen in Deutschland 180 Menschen getötet", 135 of them in the Ahr region alone. The term "century flood" expressly does not mean that NRW is safe from further flooding for the next 95 years.

Commemoration in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler with Merz and Steinmeier

For the official commemoration ceremony starting at 7 p.m. in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, „haben sich Ministerpräsident Gordon Schnieder und Bundeskanzler Friedrich Merz (beide CDU) angesagt", heißt es im Programm. In addition, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and other representatives are expected. The live blog aims „über einen Blick zurück auf die Entwicklungen der letzten Jahre und den Stand des Wiederaufbaus in den betroffenen Regionen" to inform.

Alongside the commemoration, meteorologists are also examining the current weather situation: while northern Germany will remain mostly sunny and dry at 24 to 30 degrees, the south and low mountain ranges face potentially severe thunderstorms with heavy rain, gale-force gusts, and hail, with highs of 30 to 35 degrees. This brings the question of renewed flood protection in the affected valleys back to the forefront.