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Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on the banks of the Ahr: "Memory of death has not faded"
Photo:
Michael Probst / dpa
Almost three months after the flood disaster in the Ahr valley, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier met residents and helpers and encouraged them. "We will not forget you," he promised the people of the region. On this day too, "the memory of death has not faded". Of course, the disaster warning system is an issue. But the focus is on mourning - and coping with everyday life with a view to the approaching winter. He hoped that there would be at least temporary solutions for everyone who was still without heating and electricity.
In Ahrweiler, a district of Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, Steinmeier had the damage on both banks shown on a destroyed bridge over the Ahr.
A temporary bridge has now been set up there.
Steinmeier was accompanied by the Deputy Prime Minister of Rhineland-Palatinate and Climate Protection Minister Anne Spiegel (Greens) and Interior Minister Roger Lewentz (SPD).
Spiegel thanked the state government for the visit, which was "a very, very important signal."
She reaffirmed the commitment to support the affected communities and the people living there.
The reconstruction must proceed “quickly, sustainably and climate-resiliently”.
On September 1, Steinmeier took part in the state ceremony for the victims of the flood disaster.
At that time he said at the Nürburgring that it was not just about emergency aid for reconstruction.
"You need our help and our attention not only now, in the acute emergency, but for a long time."
In Rhineland-Palatinate, 133 people in the particularly affected Ahr valley and one person in the Trier region were killed in the flood after extremely heavy rain on July 14th and 15th.
49 people lost their lives in North Rhine-Westphalia.
There, serious damage was done to the Euskirchen district, the Rhein-Sieg district and parts of the Bergisches Land, among others.
ime / dpa