The water drains away, the clean-up work after the storm disaster in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate continues. Meanwhile, the helpers are losing hope of being able to save the living.
Berlin – Less than a week after the floods in western Germany, the Vice President of the Technical Relief Organization (THW), Sabine Lackner, sees little chance of finding survivors.
“We are currently still looking for missing people, for example when clearing the paths or pumping out the basement,” she told the editorial network Germany (RND). “At this point, however, it is unfortunately very likely that you can only rescue victims, not save them.”
At least 170 dead
The number of flood deaths had risen to at least 170 within a week by Tuesday. 122 deaths from storms were confirmed from Rhineland-Palatinate and 48 from North Rhine-Westphalia. People were still missing on Tuesday – 155 in the particularly affected district of Ahrweiler in the north of Rhineland-Palatinate. Around 40,000 people there were considered to have been affected by the consequences of the devastating floods and floods.
Roads, railroad tracks, bridges, cell phone masts, electricity, gas and water lines have been destroyed in many places. According to Deutsche Bahn, the water masses damaged seven regional lines in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate so badly that they have to be rebuilt or extensively renovated. Tracks on around 600 kilometers are affected.
The Marburger Bund doctors’ union is also concerned about the care of patients in the disaster areas. Some medical practices in Rhineland-Palatinate are no longer able to work, it said on Tuesday – practices not affected by floods would have to provide care for patients in such a situation. It would also make sense if provisional “emergency practices” and “emergency pharmacies” were set up for the chronically ill and other patients in municipalities and city districts.
There is also major damage to agriculture – some of the grain was turned over by the floods. Other fields are soaked with water so that the heavy combine harvesters cannot drive on them and the soil first has to dry out. The grain harvest should actually be in full swing at the moment. A spokesman for the North Rhine-Westphalia Chamber of Agriculture said satellite images should be used to gain an initial overview by the end of the week.
Dreyer travels to the crisis area again
On Wednesday evening, the Rhineland-Palatinate Prime Minister Malu Dreyer wants to get an idea in Nürburg (Eifel). The state chancellery in Mainz announced that the SPD politician was expected at the Nürburgring. The paddock of the traditional racetrack serves these days as a center for the provision of helpers.
The Mainz state government decided on Tuesday to provide immediate aid of up to 3500 euros per household for those affected by the disaster in Rhineland-Palatinate. The state chancellery announced that the money should be paid out via the district administrations as quickly as possible without a means test. In addition, more than 6.2 million euros in private donations were received on the state government’s donation account. The money is to be distributed through district administrations.
On Tuesday, Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) visited the flood areas for the second time in a few days and promised those affected unbureaucratic emergency aid. Everything will be done to “ensure that the money gets to the people quickly,” she said in the badly damaged city of Bad Münstereifel (North Rhine-Westphalia). “I hope that will be a matter of days.”
The federal government wants to bring the multi-million dollar emergency aid on the way on Wednesday. A construction fund worth billions is also planned.
After quite summery days brought by Hoch “Dana”, the German Weather Service (DWD) is expecting the next weather change at the weekend. From night to Saturday, according to the information, increasingly changeable weather with locally strong showers and thunderstorms will prevail again from the southwest. dpa
