The clean-up work in the flood areas in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate is still in full swing.
There are also helpers from Weilheim-Schongau.
District - "The pictures on television do not do justice to what is happening there" - Alexander Kunz, technical advisor at THW Weilheim, is still shocked by what he found in the flood area Ahrtal: "It almost looks as if something had happened Bomb carpet laid over the region. ”Together with his colleagues Tobias Illich, Andreas Hellebrandt and Benedikt Reger, the man from Weilheim took over the operations section management in the municipality of Antweiler in Rhineland-Palatinate last week. Your task: to rebuild the water supply for the 14 villages around Antweiler. Since the flood that raged in the Ahr valley more than two weeks ago, the residents had to get their used water from tanks and had their drinking water delivered in plastic bottles.
The four Weilheimers were strengthened by David Templin from Schongau in the middle of last week.
Together they were responsible for coordinating the repair of the damaged water pipes.
Not only did the materials have to be purchased for this, but the many voluntary helpers also had to be supervised: "At weddings, 140 THW helpers from all over Germany were on site," reports Kunz.
BRK provided food in the flood area
The THW volunteers were not the only ones from the district who helped in the disaster area.
Otto Bauer, former BRK district standby leader, was also there with a group of ten people from all over the district.
Bauer and his team provided food for three days in Ahrweiler.
“We cooked 3800 servings of warm food a day,” reports Bauer.
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The quantities that are prepared in the field cooker are greater than in the familiar home.
Here the BRK chef added parsley from the ten-liter bucket.
© BRK
The amount of food was not the only challenge: "We had great difficulties reaching those who can no longer leave their apartments," reports Bauer.
He says that the BRK team sometimes had to drive 60 kilometers to deliver food to districts that were on the other side of the river.
Tar roads and bridges were largely destroyed.
The field kitchen of the team from the district was set up 200 meters from the largest damage site in Ahrweiler, says Bauer.
But that is not the norm, "mainly for psychological reasons".
The residents should be signaled that help is on the spot.
Physically and mentally demanding work of the volunteers in the flood area
The work of the volunteers is extremely demanding, not only physically but also psychologically, as Kunz and Bauer agree.
Bauer reports that his team equipped themselves with peppermint oil to protect themselves from the smell of the fecal mud.
The helpers sleep in tents or in their cars, says Bauer, and of course the water supply is also very limited for the volunteers.
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The helpers from Weilheimer THW worked to ensure that the water supply works again.
© THW
In addition, the volunteers see the fate of those affected with their own eyes: "When you look into the faces of the people who have lost everything, you begin to understand how bad it really was," says Kunz.
"Those affected had a great need to talk to," says Bauer, to whom the residents regularly reported on their experiences.
The commitment of the groups from the district was all the more important.
Even if much of what has been lost in the water cannot be replaced, the volunteers can at least bring a little relief.
Thanks to Kunz and his team, there is hope, according to the head of operations, that the residents will soon no longer have to be satisfied with just Dixie toilets and shower containers.
And the BRK has brought food and support to the residents of the affected areas.
Helpers expect a long service in the flood area
However, the crisis is not completely over.
The clean-up work in the affected areas is still in full swing.
A seven-person clearing team from THW Weilheim is also on site, reports Kunz.
One of the tasks of these volunteers is to clean up the campsite in Antweiler, which has been completely washed away by the flood.
Bauer doubts that normality will return to the Ahr valley in the near future.
After he was able to form his own picture of the consequences of the flood, he estimates that “it will take at least until December before they have a usable infrastructure again”.
The Bavarian State Association of the THW reckons that the deployment in the affected areas could last at least six to eight weeks, said Kunz.
by Hannah Beck
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