A new disaster overtook Germany – an oil and oil spill occurred in North Rhine-Westphalia, in the city of Hükesvagen, Bild reports.
The Cologne authorities believe that the reason was the flooding of the enterprise, which caused damage to the storage, and mudflows. There are concerns that local reservoirs may be polluted. Experts identify the concentration of hazardous substances in the air and water samples taken. There is currently a ban on swimming in reservoirs, fishing and boating.
Since July 12, West / South-West Germany has seen natural aggression – showers and floods. The tributaries of the Rhine Ahr and Moselle, the small rivers Nims, Sauer, Erft, Prüm, and Kiel overflowed the banks. The number of victims of the flood reached 156, 670 people were affected. There are fears that the death toll will increase. Crisis management in Traunstein announced on Saturday night the introduction of an emergency regime in the south-east of Bavaria.
Among the main causes of flooding experts point to the unpreparedness of the population. Professor Ralf Merz of the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research in Leipzig explains the massive damage, a large number of victims and missing persons by the fact that the population of the affected regions was not ready for a catastrophe of this kind – extreme natural aggression has not been observed there over the past decades. Merz believes that people simply did not expect such a powerful revelry of the elements. Another major factor, according to the expert, is too short a time to react.
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