Now all THW helpers are back home.
They will never forget what they experienced in the disaster area: Great hardship, but also deep gratitude.
Freising
- The Freising THW forces are - for the time being - back from the disaster area Ahrtal.
A week after the bridge construction specialists, the second team came back safely to Freising.
The impressions of these weeks, reports Peter Binner from the THW media team, were overwhelming: On the one hand suffering and destruction - on the other hand the joy and gratitude of the population for the help of the helpers.
Coordinated up to 250 emergency services
20 women and men, divided into three teams with different tasks, moved to North Rhine-Westphalia on August 1st. For the Freising train squad headed by Marco Eisenmann, it went to Dernau to replace the team from THW Munich West. Together with other fresh helpers, the management position was reorganized and a 24-hour shift system was introduced. Peter Binner: “This command post goes far beyond the management tasks that a platoon troop normally performs. The entire needs of specialist advisors, emergency services, vehicles or tasks such as emptying the basement, i.e. every task that occurs in the area of operation, up to the request for hammers and nails, was reported, processed and organized via the control center.“At peak times, the Freising squad coordinated 250 THW and fire fighters. And: "Everything went smoothly."
Everything delivered: from fuel to construction timber
The second team was deployed as a logistics team consisting of three trucks and trailers.
The Freising helpers carried out transport and supply trips to the damaged areas from a provisionally set up logistics base.
The deliveries consisted of a wide variety of goods: construction timber for supporting or cladding of buildings, hygiene articles for daily use, fuel for emergency services and the population "right through to valuable drinking water that is still not available in individual areas," as Binner reports.
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At peak times, the Freising train squad coordinated up to 250 THW and fire brigades during its deployment in Dernau.
Everything went smoothly - a logistical masterpiece under the most difficult of conditions.
© Drechsler
Through fords and over long detours
The group leader of the Freising rescue group, Andreas Binner, reports that the deployment sites could often only be reached via the most adverse road conditions such as water crossings (fords), steep mountain stretches with numerous serpentines, kilometer-wide detours or with the help of anti-skid chains.
In addition, there was probably the first supraregional assignment of the kitchen crew in the history of the THW Freising: The kitchen professionals from Freising helped with the preparation and distribution of packed lunches, breakfast and dinner.
Everyone is at home now, but would leave immediately
On Saturday, the last THW workers from Freising came back for the time being.
The emergency supply specialist group headed by group leader Florian Erler, which also started in the Ahr valley on August 8, helped with the construction of a makeshift bridge, with the disposal of rubbish from the houses and also with the disposal of liquids such as heating oil from damaged buildings.
Building consultant Alexander Hoisl explored buildings in order to be able to decide on further necessary measures.
After about three weeks of work, all THW helpers are back home.
Peter Binner: “The impressions that you have gathered in the crisis area, the suffering and destruction that you have seen, but also the joy and thanks you have given them, motivates everyone so strongly that they return immediately in spite of everything would move into the damaged area. "
And that may actually be the case again soon.
The THW mission has not yet ended.
Also exciting: At the airport: the wrong-way driver was driving on the autobahn at 0.6 per mille
(By the way: Everything from the region is now also available in our new, regular Freising newsletter.)