July 2021 European Floods

Update 1 with Shapefiles | Summary
Posting Date: July 16, 2021, 2:00:00 PM

ALERT™ subscribers can download shapefiles created from data published by Copernicus EMS for this event from the Downloads tab, which can be utilized within Touchstone^®’s Geospatial Analytics Module or any GIS application to better understand the impacts on your portfolio. ALERT subscribers can also download an Excel file containing the CRESTA zones in which damaging flooding has been reported since July 13.

The death toll from floods in Europe continues to rise. In western Germany more than 100 people are reported to have died from this event, and in Belgium at least 22. Entire villages have been destroyed, and thousands of people are still unaccounted for, as power and cellphone outages have been making it difficult to establish contact. About 15,000 official personnel in Germany have been charged with supporting the search and rescue efforts.

One area that has been especially hard hit is the Ahr valley, which is named after the Ahr River, a left tributary of the Rhine River in Germany. All along the Ahr River, homes are flooded and bridges are broken; in the village of Schuld most buildings are destroyed.

In Belgium the wider-Liège area has been heavily affected in addition to the areas around Hasselt and Namur. The Meuse River, which flows through Liège seems to have stabilized this morning, with small overflows.

In Switzerland damage of the same severity as Germany and Belgium has not been reported, but in many parts of Switzerland lakes and rivers continue to rise. The Aare River, which runs through the Swiss capital Bern burst its banks, flowing at a record rate of 560 cubic meters per second today. Lake Lucerne is flooding into the town and residents of Basel have been told to stay away from the Rhine. There is also the risk of mud and rock slides in the Alps as the floodwaters run off.

The Netherlands and Luxembourg have also been impacted, but neither has reported deaths related to the floods. In the Netherlands thousands of people in towns and villages along the River Meuse were urged to leave their houses quickly.

Update 1 with Shapefiles | Downloads
Posting Date: July 16, 2021, 2:00:00 PM

The information provided herein is strictly confidential and is solely for the use of AIR clients; disclosure to others is prohibited.

Shapefiles and Affected CRESTA Zones Downloads

Note: Downloads related to the posting are listed below. Please use the appropriate application to view these files.

AIR provides ALERT users with a list of CRESTA zones in which damaging flooding was reported occurring the dates of July 13-16 2021. This list is compiled by AIR and largely informed by reports in the media, social media and by in-situ reports.

 

Additionally, AIR provides ALERT users with two shapefiles which were created from data published by Copernicus EMS. AIR has combined several maps provided by the EMS for ease of import into Touchstone. One shapefile contains the “Areas of Interest” of the relevant EMS activations (EMSR 517-520). The other shapefile contains the “Observed Event Area / Flooded Area” (a much smaller and more granular outline). Please refer to the Copernicus EMS website for a detailed description of the products. We have not included the “AoI 2 - Rhine” since we could not verify significant flood damages inside the AOI so far. Full credit for the information provided goes to Copernicus EMS. Besides joining the shapefiles, AIR has not performed data manipulation / enhancements / validation. Several EMS products were still in production at the time of this writing, and we encourage users to check for updates directly at the EMS website.

Data source: Copernicus Emergency Management Service. https://emergency.copernicus.eu/ (accessed 07/16/21).

Title	File Type	Description	Download
Affected CRESTA Zones	.xlsx	List of CRESTA Zones impacted by flooding
Copernicus Areas of Interest	.zip	Copernicus Areas of Interest of Relevant EMS Activations
Copernicus Observed Event Area	.zip	Copernicus Observered Flooding Area