Many people in Germany did not receive flood alerts on their phones, as mobile networks were down, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday
BERLIN (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th July, 2021) Many people in Germany did not receive flood alerts on their phones, as mobile networks were down, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday.
Merkel spoke with journalists at a press conference in the flooded town of Bad Muenstereifel in the North Rhine-Westphalia state. The chancellor arrived in the town earlier in the day with regional Prime Minister Armin Laschet to meet with local officials, rescue services and residents.
"The SMS alert system ... does not work if the mobile network system is down. Then there is no way to send an SMS alert," Merkel said when asked why there were no mobile warnings about an impending catastrophe.
Deadly floods in Germany were caused by heavy rains that affected most of western Europe last week. The states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saxony, and Bavaria have been damaged the most by the disaster, with reports of dozens of casualties and severe damage to public and private infrastructure.
The latest death toll from disastrous flooding stands at 164 and hundreds of others missing. Merkel has been paying visits to the flooded areas since Sunday.
