100-Year Floods Have Nothing To Do with Climate Change

There was recent flooding of the 85-kilometer-long Ahr River, which flows through Rheinland-Pfalz and Nordrhein Westfalen. As a result of the flooding, 190 people, who were warned too late, lost their lives. The flooding was typical of the phenomenon known as 100-year flooding. In the 14th century large parts of Germany were under water, with the cathedral in Mainz also flooded. In the Ahr valley, there were floods in 1810 and 1910, with deaths of around 50. In the 1910 flood, most of the dead were railroad workers who had refused to leave their quarters. In 2010, flooding was expected, but nothing was done to prepare for the flood, which came in 2021. There was little done in the form of retaining walls or the forbidding of house building in former flood areas. Flooding also regularly occurs in the Rhine valley, with the highest flooding — nine meters (30 feet) — having occurred near Wiesbaden in 1845 . Since then there has been regular flooding with few casualties, due to precautions, some of which have been blocked by the Greens.