Around 3,500 helpers from the DRK are currently deployed in the areas affected by the flood disaster: “We’ll stay as long as the people need help.”
Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler – The Red Cross expects a long relief effort in the disaster area on the Ahr.
“We are already preparing for the fact that we still have several months to provide help,” said the President of the German Red Cross (DRK), Gerda Hasselfeldt, during a visit to Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler. “We will definitely stay as long as the people need the help.”
Around 3500 helpers from the DRK from all over Germany are currently deployed in the areas affected by the flood disaster in Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia. They help with the supply of drinking water, electricity, hygiene articles – and with the provision of mobile medical practices. Many doctor’s offices were destroyed.
“This help is also very much recognized by the population,” said Hasselfeldt. In addition, there is a great willingness to donate for those affected: more than 15 million euros have already been received in donations.
In order to be able to provide better and faster care for people in such disasters, Hasselfeldt called for the establishment of a total of ten supply camps nationwide, in which, for example, camp beds, bunk beds, blankets, hygiene items, water treatment systems and power generators are stored. Politicians have already decided on two such camps. She very much hope that the remaining “eight locations will be approved and implemented relatively quickly”.
Some of the people in the disaster area are traumatized
After the flood disaster on the Ahr in the north of Rhineland-Palatinate, many people are traumatized. The German Red Cross (DRK) is on the way with crisis intervention forces to provide psychological help, said DRK President Hasselfeldt. Not only citizens are affected, but also helpers.
The doctor Peter Maas, who has taken over services in a mobile doctor’s practice in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, said that many patients come into the container with injuries or with the request for prescriptions. “What strikes us is that the external injuries are often very minor, but when the patients are with us for the first time in a situation in which they are taken care of for the first time, all the dams often break and become strong Emotions came out. We also deal with that. “
In the flood disaster about a week ago, at least 175 people were killed in western Germany – 128 in Rhineland-Palatinate and 47 in North Rhine-Westphalia. dpa
