About two hundred people died in the floods in Germany and Belgium, many are still missing, and high temperatures in the Mediterranean are causing fires like the one in western Sardinia, near the town of Scano di Montiferra, which has left over 4,000 hectares burned and led to the evacuation of 355 people. The floods demonstrated how slow the response of civil authorities was to warnings coming from scientists in the European Flood Warning System based on satellite forecasts. However, when the Sardinian fire broke out, Italy requested assistance under the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, and soon two Canadairs were sent from France and Greece.
Breaking the Chain
After the floods, the public in Germany and Belgium wants to know why people were not evacuated despite warnings and whether in the Belgian case local authorities worsened the situation by managing the dam, Politico writes, revealing in conversations with experts and officials that both countries were indeed unprepared. The investigation could take months, but according to Politico, the chain of notification broke, and warnings did not translate into instructions for rescuing citizens. This, Politico emphasizes, happened when the warnings were forwarded to regional and local authorities, for which certainly no single person or competent authority is responsible. Meanwhile, the Italians received Canadairs from France as part of the European Emergency Response Capacity, while the Greek part is part of rescEU, which provides aircraft and helicopters in emergencies to rescue EU residents.
