destruction compare

 The disaster is still there. However it becomes calm and calmer. The majority of the garbage is taken away but the destruction is there and will be visible for month, years or for affected people a whole life.

Fact is, the Ahr valley will never be the same. The picture that I or other residents have will never be the same. What will we think wenn we drive in few years through the valley? And because of that I searched for some before and after photos in my albums. I don't find so much, because I was more often hiking on the opposite side of the Ahr. Currently is not easy to get on the opposite side and I don't will disturb workers.

I'm sure that the people who live here compare the situation for the upcoming years maybe forever. There will be a before and after the flood in stories of the valley. 

In June 2016 the last flood took place in the Ahr valley with an historic high water level of about 3.21m in Altenahr. About 07:15pm the Ahr arrived this level. Few hours later in the night the level was at least seven meters which is more than twice as 2016. What an incredible level and so many people never thought about such an incredible high water level. Are the officials did mistakes? For sure but can we judge? Nobody is really responsible for such a nature catastrophe but we have to clarify what was happened to don't do the same mistakes again.

 I will share some official facts about the current situation.

- 139 people died (106 of them identified)

- 26 people are still missing

- 766 where injured

- about 5000 official forces are in duty in the Ahrweiler region

- water supply is still damaged - supply by official forces

sources : hochwasser-ahr.rlp.de

- 62 bridges destroyed (pedestrian, car and railroad bridges)

- 13 bridges damaged

- 14 schools damaged

- about 467 houses destroyed

- 717 houses damaged

- 3055 possible affected houses

- 42.000 affected people

- at least 17.000 have directly lost belongings or are facing significant damage 

sources : SWR GeneralAnzeiger

These are incredible numbers, especially when you live here. Usually we hear about comparable disasters worldwide from the news but now it's tangible. Now we can't switch of television and I'm a little bit ashamed about this distance to disasters in other countries. I had luck. I'm not direct affected. My wife had night shift and parked over the car two times in that night so we didn't loose the car. 

Now it needs time, money and manpower. Currently there are five emergency bridges above the Ahr built by German Forces and technical aid organization.

Along the river the cleanup goes on. What will happen to the buildings? I don't know but I think some buildings will built up, some not. Currently the number of houses in the Ahr valley to sell rises. Who can blame the people but who will buy such affected houses at such high prices. Difficult questions this time. Problem is also, that construction materials are currently very expensive and craftsman are rare. I hope the best for the people and the whole region.

Another problem especially for me personally are public enemies like Querdenker or other conspiracy theorists who use the current situation for own targets. They disturb official helpers and present themselves as heroes. In Ahrweiler they disturb the official mobile vaccination center for the Corona virus. They used vehicles which looks similar to police and armed forces cars and shared many Youtube videos where they accuse the government not to help. They used a elementary school as headquarter and for a kind of emergency kindergarten. As the police pushed them out of the school we saw, that they did not even clean the school. They have many supporters especially in internet forums and social networks and this is a major problem in these days. They present themselves as helpers and supporter but they are more and more radical as we see often at the so called Querdenker demonstrations. They mixed up with radical conspiracy theorists who spread rumors that the government are responsible for the weather phenomenons or that the government collect water in bunkers to flood the valley. On the other hand they don't believe in climate change and the current pandemic. Everything is controlled by dark forces. I'm so tired about such lost people. They react allergic to facts and a conversation is not possible because every argument which is not for them is changed by the dark forces. How we will handle such people who become more and more radical? I don't know but I'm scared about the future with such people who maybe will become terrorists. They fight against governmental structures and want to overcome the democratic system. Really dangerous and incredible that they use disasters like the flood for own targets.

 >>>> Photos Ahr Flood July 2021 <<<<