Four consecutive weeks with an average of twelve helpers on duty, 1.2 million liters of heating oil pumped out, countless amounts of rubbish, floating debris, cars etc. cleared away - and numerous new friendships made.
The operation in the flood area in Rhineland-Palatinate was the largest of all times for the THW Dachau.
Now the strength is back at home.
Dachau / Dernau - When Sven Langer, spokesman for the THW local association in Dachau, recently sat down with his colleagues, a sentence made the rounds, as he reveals. It reads: “We have already seen a lot, but not something like that!” Elbe floods, floods all over Bavaria, the Dachau Technical Relief Organization has been on the road a lot. But the 28 days in the villages of Dernau and Marienthal in Rhineland-Palatinate, which were destroyed by the floods, were the “most violent” in the history of the civil protection organization. The Dachau team returned on Friday - and took stock.
Even the bare figures are impressive: for four weeks, around twelve helpers were on site without interruption. The day shifts were 13 to 14 hours. After a week, the team was exchanged, with some forces traveling two or even three times. They pumped out 1.2 million liters of heating oil and cleared away countless tons of rubbish, debris, cars, electrical appliances, etc.
Spokesman Langer describes the situation when the THW arrived on Saturday, July 24th, after the 600-kilometer journey in the municipality of Dernau an der Ahr, which has almost 2,000 inhabitants.
“The Ahr normally has a level of 90 centimeters.
During the flood it rose to up to seven meters.
Basement, ground floors, first floors, everything flooded.
It wasn't just the water that made things dangerous, because cars, tanks, trees and even parts of houses were floating in the water. "
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Shifts of 13 or 14 hours: The THW was constantly on duty with heavy equipment to remove rubbish, floating debris and much more.
© THW
Streets, driveways, entrances, houses, everything was blocked by it. Together with other THWs, it was the very first task of the Dachau residents to clear them again. And: "90 to 95 percent of the houses had oil heating," says Langer, in other words, the helpers had to pump out greasy liquids as much as they could. It was necessary to organize so-called IBC containers for the water-oil mixture. These are large cuboid containers for liquid and pourable substances. They are used, for example, in the production of chemicals or pharmaceuticals. Finally there was the transport to a collection point 20 kilometers away. There, in turn, comrades from Cuxhaven stood ready to separate water and oil by means of a separation system. The device enables 98 percent pure heating oil to remain.
“When there was no order, we would drive our dump trucks, loaders and trucks to the people and ask them where else our help was needed,” says Langer.
Speaking of people: “Everything was great” with them, the spokesman said.
The THW Dachau had been invited to a community festival, another festival would be in winter.
One small incident with a local resident is particularly remembered by Langer.
The man said to him: "When I saw the Bavarian license plates on the cars, I knew it was going!" Beyond this meeting, the THW people in Dachau had numerous positive experiences with the population, according to Langer.
They would have made new friends, had new experiences and, last but not least, had the certainty of being able to help.
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90 to 95 percent oil heating: Max Sturm with IBC containers in which the THW collected the oil-water mixture.
© THW
The Dachau residents were housed in tents on the tartan track of a sports club.
"We were allowed to use the sanitary facilities and were given fresh towels - it was all worth gold," says Sven Langer, who therefore sends the following greetings to Rhineland-Palatinate: "Special thanks go to our friends at Grafschafter SV for their hospitality and accommodation in the forest sports facility Vettelhoven! "
How things continue in the disaster area will have to be seen. At the moment something is being done "at every corner", said the THW spokesman. The houses, some of which had to be relocated to the shell, are now to be gradually built or refurbished. "But it will take years before people there can live normally again, until it looks the way it used to," says Langer, to whom one more thing is important: "A big thank you goes to our families and the employers of our forces", he says, because both showed great understanding that the THW Dachau was ordered to Rhineland-Palatinate.
