In West Germany “temporary” life one year after flood

In western Germany’s Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, residents are still waiting for a return to normal life a year after the city was devastated by deadly flash floods.

Around 18,000 residents, i.e. more than half of the local population, were affected by the disaster in the once picturesque spa town in western Germany.

The anniversary of the night of July 14, 2021 will be celebrated on Thursday with the visit of Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Mayor Guido Orthen shows Scholzer streets that have been cleared of mud and debris washed over the city by the flood waters.

But a return to the old state “will take time,” he says, the conversion is still in progress.

“We still have makeshift infrastructure, makeshift playgrounds, makeshift schools, makeshift roads that make life possible,” he says.

None of the 18 bridges that used to cross the Ahr are still functional, and three temporary crossings were installed in their place.

The marks of the flood are everywhere, from the collapsed banks at the roadside to the high-water mark on many buildings.

While officials are keen to get things back up and running as quickly as possible, they are also under pressure to ensure residents are safe from future flooding.

“We are still living in the same dangerous situation as we were a year ago,” says Orthen, putting residents in a state of anxiety when bad weather is forecast.

In Germany, 185 people died in the disaster. Most of the fatalities were in the Ahr Valley, which meanders more than 40 kilometers south of Bonn to where the river meets the Rhine.

Mayor Orthen is dismayed that protective measures to protect local residents from future flooding are the subject of endless bureaucratic discussions.

In areas with a high risk of flooding, the destroyed houses may not be rebuilt, while the damaged ones can be repaired.

In addition, the city administration is faced with a mountain of paperwork, because by the end of June 2023, 1,400 applications for renovation measures are expected to be submitted in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler.

“We won’t be able to do that,” says Orthen. Even with reinforcements, his staff is “exhausted”.

After a year in the “state of emergency”, the elected official sees “disillusionment” and a “feeling of powerlessness” growing among his residents.

Over 2,000 people left Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler last year.

In Rhineland-Palatinate, only 500 million euros of a total of 15 billion euros were distributed in aid.

The conservative state legislator Horst Gies is quoted as saying in the “Generalanzeiger” that the slow progress is an “affront to those affected”.

In the neighboring region of North Rhine-Westphalia, EUR 1.6 billion in state funding was approved out of a total of EUR 12.3 billion.

In the town of Sinzig, around 15 kilometers from Ahrweiler, candles were lit in front of a former nursing home for the mentally handicapped where 12 residents died in the floods.

The provider of the facility, Lebenshilfe, is still looking for a location for a new facility.

“Our talks with the mayor’s office and the local administration have not brought anything,” says Ulrich van Bebber from Lebenshilfe.

Frustration builds among those trying to rebuild their lives as promised help has been slow to arrive.

“We want to stand up in the eyes of Germany,” says Iris Münn-Buschow, the ground floor of her house still in the middle of being renovated.

“We have the impression that everything else that happens in the world is more important than what happens here in Germany,” she says.

With her husband she founded the organization “Das Ahrtal Stands Up”, which has organized a series of protest actions.

“Nobody has forgotten the Ahr Valley and the other regions,” stressed the Prime Minister of Rhineland-Palatinate, Malu Dreyer, about how much work still needs to be done.