![]() ![]() ![]() Of the respondents, 12% participated in the operations as spontaneous volunteers, the others in different ranks within their organisations and 8% of them were from professional organisations. The open-answer text fields were used by 911 respondents and 37,400 words of text were collected. After data cleaning, a sample of 2264 remained. The survey was viewed 5986 times and 2571 questionnaires were completed. Participation in the survey was voluntary. The survey ran from 1 to 21 September 2021 and was carried out with the online tool SoSciSurvey. Pretests were run with 60 persons, including 20 foreign experts. The questions were developed within focus group discussions with flood responders. ![]() The questions are organised as 24 closed questions and 7 open-ended questions. From these, 9 questions are directly based on a previous survey we had conducted after the floods in 2013 to enable a comparison. The online survey is structured into 20 questions on motivational aspects and 11 questions about the respondents and their background. We have carried out an online survey with operational response forces and voluntary helpers (N = 2264), focus group discussions, interviews and field visits with crisis managers, flood experts, local and Federal administration and affected people, that all help to inform this paper. The analysis of the recent flood event is based on media and news reviews as well as own observations and data collection of the authors. It is a snapshot while the processing is still in progress, which helps to come to terms with the experiences of the early relief and recovery phase. This paper aims to address the subject holistically, even when it must be acknowledged that not all the important aspects can be covered in this early report. Some interdisciplinary findings of the implications of this event for the future planning of communities and cities already have been published after this event. However, the article also covers pertinent aspects of social vulnerability, civil protection, disaster preparedness, operational disaster management, communication and perception, spatial assessments, as this also is of relevance to inform further lessons to learn. ![]() It starts from reflecting upon specific aspects of risk and resilience assessment and planning on critical infrastructure (CI), which have been the main content of a 3-years project 2016–2019 in one of the affected areas, in Rhein-Erft Kreis and Cologne, the CIRmin project on ‘Critical Infrastructures Resilience as a Minimum Supply Concept’. This early report restricts itself to floods and the events in Germany, and specific aspects of this wider topic, that fall into the expertise and scope of the authors. It appears to be a summer of extreme events that also saw the opposite of too much water droughts and wildfires. The vulnerability paradox also heavily contributes to it German society became increasingly vulnerable to failure due to an increased dependency on its infrastructure and emergency system, and the ensuing expectations of the public for a perfect system. Increasing frequencies of flash floods and other extremes due to climate change are just one side of the transformation and challenge, Germany and neighbouring countries are facing. The main disaster aspects of the 2021 flood are related to issuing and understanding warnings, a lack of information and data exchange, unfolding upon a situation of an ongoing pandemic and aggravated further by critical infrastructure failure. The findings are based on comparisons with findings from previous research projects carried out in the Rhein-Erft Kreis and the city of Cologne, as well as on discussions with operational relief forces after the 2021 events. This article presents lessons to learn and argues against a blame culture. Almost immediately questions about failure in the early warning chains and the effectiveness of the German response emerged, also internationally. Floods are a known natural hazard in Germany, but the amount of precipitation and ensuing high death toll and damages after the events especially from 14 to 15 July 2021 came as a surprise. ![]()
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