The people in the Ahr Valley, which was extremely affected by the floods in mid-July, will celebrate this Christmas with mixed feelings.
Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler – Maria, heavily pregnant, and Josef look in vain for a hostel. Jesus is therefore born in a stable. That’s what the Bible says.
Even two millennia later, at Christmas 2021, numerous families in the flood-damaged Ahr Valley are still dependent on emergency accommodation. The extreme floods in mid-July killed 134 people, injured more than 750 and damaged or destroyed thousands of houses. How do residents celebrate Christmas Eve?
Quite different, says the Protestant pastor Bernd Bazin, coordinator of the Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe team on the Ahr. Some would spend Christmas in their alternative quarters somewhere else with relatives, for example, some probably on site in emergency shelters such as tiny houses, some in their undamaged houses further up on the slopes of the Ahr valley.
Bazin suspects “that it will be an unforgettable Christmas for some: We stuck together so much during the flood, we experienced so much solidarity.” For other valley residents, on the other hand, Christmas Eve could be “very terrible” with the return of traumatic memories of the night of the flood, so that they might perceive a Christmas party as “perverse”. On the night of July 15, many of them waited on roofs in fear of death, heard cries for help from neighbors and witnessed the destruction of their own homes when cars and heating oil tanks crashed into them by the flash flood.
After that, numerous social contact points were set up in the Ahr Valley, including the “Die Ahrche” association in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler. A festive meal is planned here on Christmas Eve. The volunteer Claudia Kreuser says: “We want to give people a little home and have an open ear for them.” Especially at Christmas. Kreuser suspects “that the flood could have awakened children’s fears, who are now coming up again”. dpa
