Interview with rescuers – “The injured ran towards us screaming!”

Water rescuer Christian Hafner (26) talks about the dramatic minutes during the mission at St. Andräer See

Mr. Hafner, how are you the day after the tragic incident at Lake St. Andrä? It’s just terrible what happened. Many of the emergency services are only now realizing what happened – and that needs to be worked up. It also helps that we’re already in the next phase and focused on the cleanup. We have to make our deployment site fit again for regular service at the bathing lake. How did you personally experience the storm? I’ve been a volunteer lifeguard here at the lake for 13 years now and therefore I dare to say that I know the weather really well and can also assess it can. But what happened on Thursday was not foreseeable. It wasn’t even possible to inform the bathers about the weather warning because the hurricane swept across the area within ten seconds. How can you imagine the situation afterwards? It was great chaos. People screamed all around, then the first injured people ran towards us. A mother put her motionless daughter in our arms. It was awful. My colleagues and I resuscitated practically from the first minute. A special praise goes to our young lifeguards. At the age of 12 to 14, they cared for the injured so professionally and applied pressure bandages in a way that probably some adults would not be able to do. Everyone has really done a great job! How do you get rid of such memorable images or how do you manage to process them? First and foremost, you talk to your colleagues about what you have experienced and the mission is examined again – as was the case yesterday on site. In addition to the crisis intervention team, the Red Cross also has specially trained employees who recognize stress reactions and pay attention to how the emergency services are doing. In conversations about dealing with stress after a stressful assignment, depending on how long you want and need, you can talk about what you have experienced. This often makes processing easier.
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