Report from Europe's flood zone: researcher calls out early warning system gridlock amid shocking loss of life

By Jeff Da Costa, PhD researcher in Environmental Science at the University of Reading & PhD Fellow at RSS-Hydro, University of Reading

It was close to midnight when I received a phone call from my sister telling me that our parent’s house was under water. Neither she nor they really knew what to do next. They were in a state of shock amid an ongoing emergency.

I drove from my house in Luxembourg City to my hometown on the only road that was still passable – and even that didn’t stay that way for long. The streets were empty and I passed no one. My parents had already called the fire service for help, but they were advised that they could not come in the next few hours.

I arrived to find the lower level…

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