Mhe memories come back with the summer temperatures and the storms. Suddenly they are present again, the images of the horror that happened during the flood in the Ahr valley last year: brown mud, people on roofs, existences torn away. “The atmosphere is very strange. The valley is trembling, is nervous, sometimes also anxious,” answers Jörg Meyrer, pastor of the Catholic parish community in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, when asked how people are reacting to severe weather warnings almost a year after the flood.
At the mercy of nature
The German Weather Service had also issued an official warning for the areas in the Ahr Valley on Friday and warned of a “violent storm situation” with “storm and hurricane gusts” and “sometimes extremely heavy rain”.
The memories of the summer of 2021 let the Ahr Valley residents feel again what it is like to be at the mercy of nature. “It’s bad for people,” says Meyrer. They dealt with the situation differently: “For some it is not a problem. Others have not yet been able to come to terms with the flood experiences.” The crisis mode into which the residents of the Ahr Valley were involuntarily drawn and in which they will find themselves for a long time to come due to the reconstruction of their homeland has so far left little room for coming to terms with and dealing with the situation experienced.
About two weeks after the flood on the banks of the Ahr, Pastor Jörg Meyrer listens to a man from the community.
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Image: Michael Braunschädel
“Are you starting again?”
It will be a long time before everything is done – even if in some places the first small successes in reconstruction can be reported. The mayor of Altenahr, Rüdiger Fuhrmann, expects that it will take another nine years before everything is back to how it used to be. In order to be able to repair parts of the infrastructure, a lot of planning work is necessary. In part, this leads to frustration because people feel that little is going on.
As early as Monday, a storm in many streets flooded houses and cellars again, reports Pastor Meyrer – in some places because the water had pushed its way through the sewage system, which had not yet been repaired. It also got into the parish hall. “Some then start to cry, others are angry and ask: Why hasn’t the sewage system been done yet?” Some were set back months in their work on the house.
All of this happened in a situation in which there were “many exciting topics” anyway, says Meyrer. Because applications are not approved or craftsmen are fully booked: “Everyone has become thin-skinned. Everything is tough and grueling.” Then came the next severe weather warnings for the end of the week. On Thursday evening, the authorities had taken safety precautions. All schools and daycare centers run by the Ahrweiler district were closed on Friday. Lessons did not take place. Pastor Meyrer and Mayor Fuhrmann report on sandbags that have been prepared. “Of course, that makes people more concerned,” says Meyrer. Children asked: “Are you starting again?”
Fuhrmann also says that dealing with such events after the flood disaster is difficult, especially for children. However, the mayor is trying to calm people down. “The flood was the result of a period of bad weather that lasted throughout the summer. It was a wet spring. And then we got this steady rain of epic proportions.”
The situation this year is different than last summer. That’s why warnings about the storms didn’t create any “stress” for him, he says: “Thunderstorms are part of summer.” Nevertheless, the mayor understands people’s nervousness. “We’ll still have to deal with dealing with the trauma for a long time,” he says. Meyrer fears that such storms could have far-reaching consequences: people who wanted to rebuild their homeland in the Ahr Valley could now decide to move away after all. Because the fear of the rain is too great.