The people in the Ahr Valley are afraid that they will be forgotten.
This is reported by Anton Huber from Gelting, who now, four weeks after the flood disaster, helped with the clean-up work.
He describes his impressions from the base.
Gelting / Kreuzberg - 80,350 euros for an old cap - that is the proceeds from an auction on Ebay. A cap with a worn shield, worn by a farmer from Ahrtal (Rhineland-Palatinate). His name: Markus Wipperfürth. Since the flood disaster in the valley, he has been helping to clean up and coordinating private relief teams. He regularly posts videos of this on his Facebook page, where the idea of auctioning the headgear that he wore all the time was born - Wipperfürth wants to donate the money for the flood victims.
Anton Huber, farmer and senior boss of the Zehmerhof in Gelting (municipality of Pliening), saw the videos on Facebook and the idea matured in him: "I'll go there and help." Like many farmers from the region there and from all over Germany.
“One of them came from Leer in East Frisia, he drove the whole way in a tractor,” Huber reports of his encounters.
He himself drove into the Ahr valley a good week ago, and in advance he wrote in WhatsApp groups what he could offer: drive tractors, excavators and dump trucks.
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Farmer Anton Huber from Gelting spontaneously drove to the Ahr Valley to help.
© Armin Rösl
People like Anton Huber are currently needed in the flood-ravaged valley near Bonn to clear away all the rubble, mud and more.
Many craftsmen are there, says Anton Huber, especially roofers.
They all work on a voluntary basis, as did the Geltinger.
The volunteer helpers sleep on camp beds in communal tents, Anton Huber was accommodated in a “craftsmen's camp”.
Poor, but that's not the point.
“I wanted to help,” says the 59-year-old.
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The small river Ahr (bottom left) had risen to the middle of the houses (dark area on the facade).
© Anton Huber
Because the weather report was bad almost two weeks ago and it was therefore clear that he would not be able to work on his own fields in the following days, he spontaneously decided to go to the Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler district.
The contact came about through a supplier from Münster for his farm.
Excavator drive on campsite
Arrived, Anton Huber was assigned to the 600-inhabitant town of Kreuzberg. Slightly smaller than the Pliening district of Gelting (approx. 800 inhabitants). In Kreuzberg, he and other volunteers were used to clean up a campsite. Use the excavator to clear up tree trunks, mud, earth and all kinds of rubble and rubbish or load them onto trucks. There are destroyed caravans everywhere, says Anton Huber. “The people there said that they are not from this campsite at all, but were washed here from a lot further away.” The owner of the campsite probably had the day before the storm and the disaster (the heavy rain and the flood came on July 14th) saved many people's lives, says Huber: Due to the weather forecast and the impending flood, he asked all guests to leave the campsite immediately.“There would have been no escape for them,” says Huber, who compares the valley to a bathtub into which a lot of water has been poured in one fell swoop.
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Poorly furnished, but well organized and effective: the helper's office in Kreuzberg.
© Anton Huber
All helpers eat lunch in makeshift snack bars, all of which were created on the private initiative of the local people.
“I didn't need any money the three days I was there,” says Anton Huber.
Because each other is helped, because food and drinks are a thank you.
Anton Huber was very impressed by this solidarity and help.
Especially because it was unbureaucratic, spontaneous - but always well coordinated and organized, especially in the private sector.
In a “helper's office”, a stand made up of boards and boxes in the mud, the volunteers are sent to the houses and places where help is needed.
Lunch in a makeshift snack bar
Anton Huber, for example, saw young people and students, whose clothes were full of dirt, sitting at lunch and then going to the next house, motivated, to help clean up there.
"Even if you no longer believe in the bureaucracy in Germany, here you believe in the people again," says Anton Huber and takes a short break.
His gaze goes nowhere, as if he were once again sitting at the makeshift snack bar, together with the other volunteers.
An image that he will not forget: "You cannot have as much human experience in three weeks in the Bahamas as in these three days in which I was there."
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A farmer from East Frisia came with this tractor and trailer.
© Anton Huber.
Many residents of the Ahr Valley don't know what to do next, says Huber of short conversations during work breaks.
He didn't take any photos of the people, he didn't want to disturb or irritate them.
He has helped.
And listened to stories.
From people in the disaster area, which is light years away from normality, who worry that they and their situation will be quickly forgotten again.
Of suicides, especially old people who no longer see any perspective.
Many people do not see any perspective
Floods are nothing unusual for the residents of the Ahr Valley, something that Anton Huber also learned.
The small river Ahr rises about every ten years, up to almost four meters.
But this time it was between 6.80 and 8 meters.
For many there was no escape because it had come so quickly.
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The clean-up work continues two months after the flood disaster.
Probably for a long time.
© Anton Huber
After three days, Anton Huber had to return to Gelting.
The weather has gotten better here, the harvest is waiting in the fields.
Even if it was only three days in quotation marks, as he says, it was important to him to lend a hand.
In the disaster area in the middle of Germany.
“You're driving out of the valley, apparently back to normal.
And on the highway you still have the pictures in your head.
At home you learn to appreciate the simple things more again. "
When he got home, a completely different world of emotions awaited him: One day after Anton Huber's return, his son Ludwig's long-planned wedding took place.
By the way: Everything from the region is now also available in our new, regular Ebersberg newsletter.
