Screams in fear of death: Lenggrieserin talks about her work in the flood area

After the devastating flood in the Ahr valley, many volunteers packed with them.

One of them was Josefine Meyer from Lenggries.

She now reported on her experiences in the narrative café

Lenggries - The flood came from Wednesday to Thursday.

And the Meyers set off on Saturday morning.

Not on vacation as planned, but with your equipment as a clearing company in the disaster area.

Josefine Meyer reported in the Lenggrieser "Erzählcafé" now about the shocking experiences in the completely destroyed Ahr valley, which she had with husband Martin and daughter Lisa.

Spontaneous arrival was actually nonsense in retrospect

The very spontaneous departure was actually nonsense, Meyer admitted.

The Bavarians were warned when they first contacted a help center: “Don't go there!

It's total chaos! ”But despite the destroyed bridges, streets and highways, the Meyers found a hotel in the neighboring valley in Bad Breisig.

"Without our daughter Lisa we wouldn't have had a chance. She uses Facebook and got important information," reports Meyer.

Shaking her head, she added: "In Bad Breisig it was as if nothing had happened." The infrastructure there was intact.

But there was no getting through by car in any part of the Ahr valley.

“There were only footpaths through the mountains of rubbish,” said the Lenggrieserin.

"Where we helped, we only cleared everything out as quickly as possible."

The first thing to do was to get the mud out of the houses

Before the mud hardened, it had to be cleared away and the houses dried.

"Now the help that is still needed is coordinated, helpers are deployed precisely," said the Mühlbacher, "but three months ago there was still chaos."

The Meyers were deployed anyway, they helped unload an aid truck weighing several tons and clear houses, including a grocery store.

“The dealer had wine worth 80,000 euros in the cellar,” reports Meyer.

Every evening the Lenggries family discussed everything they had experienced and heard, including many terrible things.

The sudden tidal wave trapped three people in the basement, the water was literally up to their necks.

Thanks to their screams in fear of death, they could still be rescued through the basement window.

"The man has not been able to sleep to this day," reported Meyer.

In the house opposite, the rescue workers had to rescue three dead

When they were clearing out a house in Ahrweiler, they learned that the fire brigade and police had only recovered three bodies from a cellar across the street that evening. Two sisters survived in a tree where they stayed for eight hours. The water just carried them away.

The Meyer family wrote a diary.

Supplemented with photos, Meyer let two of these printed books walk around in a circle of 20 listeners.

Pictures show destroyed cars on devastated, mud-gray graves.

“You can't believe that if you haven't seen it,” Meyer said several times.

And: “The tide came so quickly.” Meyer went on to say that a couple were still unsuspecting at the full Ahr at 10 p.m. on the night of the flood.

By 11 p.m. the first floor of her house was completely flooded.

On the last pages there are cell phone messages exchanged between helpers and those affected.

In a few lines it becomes clear that this help will never be forgotten.

Help from craftsmen is still urgently needed

How are people now, three months after?

And does the donated money really arrive? Asked one of the listeners.

Meyer could of course not provide any facts on this.

But North Rhine-Westphalia's Environment Minister Anne Spiegel said in an SWR interview on October 13th that 2000 of more than 8,300 aid requests had already been approved.

Liquid gas tanks should enable people to heat.

Meyer knows, however, that help from craftsmen is urgently needed.

“You can also find out which equipment is needed for reconstruction on a website.” After the flood, the first winter in the Ahr valley is now beginning.

(bib)

Bad Tölz newsletter:

Everything from your region!

Our Bad Tölz newsletter informs you regularly about all the important stories from the Bad Tölz region - including all the news about the corona crisis in your community.

Sign up here.