“It’s just really great what has been achieved,” says Malu Dreyer. The Prime Minister came to guilt to get an idea on site.
Guilt – Half a year after the fatal flood disaster in the Ahr valley, the Prime Minister of Mainz, Malu Dreyer (SPD), drew a positive interim balance after the roughest clean-up work.
“It’s just really great what has been done,” she said in the partially destroyed village of Schuld in the Ahrweiler district in Rhineland-Palatinate. “There is electricity again everywhere, there is drinking water again.” Almost all of the students have returned to their original schools. But “a lot of strength” is still needed for the reconstruction.
Local mayor Helmut Lussi added that 80 percent of the rubbish had been removed in his town. “You can drive on all of the streets again.” According to Lussi, around 80 of the 720 residents will still live in alternative quarters until their damaged houses are rebuilt. According to the mayor of the association, Guido Nisius (CDU), eleven houses were swept away in debt or demolished after the flood due to insufficient stability.
The Rhineland-Palatinate head of government Dreyer had come to guilt with Climate Protection Minister Katrin Eder (Greens), Economics Minister Daniela Schmitt (FDP) and the reconstruction officer Nicole Steingaß (SPD). During a tour they found out about the current situation.
They also went to the places in debt that Dreyer and other politicians had already visited with Angela Merkel (CDU) on July 18 a few days after the flash flood. The then Chancellor spoke of a “surreal, ghostly situation”. dpa
