Evelyn S. is a tough woman. Someone who usually lends a hand and helps where she can. Now tears are streaming down her cheeks; she urgently needs help herself! After the storms, she says: “I’m literally left with nothing.”
Where the cellar is not under water, it is covered with a thick, sticky layer of mud; where it has dried, it is as hard as concrete. “I don’t even know how to get rid of it,” says the woman from eastern Styria.You can see the strain on her face. With a miner’s light on her forehead, covered in dirt, she has been standing in the wet cellar for hours, slaving away, wiping, cleaning, running outside with a full bucket. All sorts of things that were once useful are still floating around her; they are no longer. The washing machine is broken, the freezer, the entire wood heating system.The whole cellar is a disaster, the driveway too, the garden is flooded. Huge tree trunks that were lying at the back were washed to the front of the road, so enormous was the force. The lovingly planted plants peck around dirty in the bushes. “Everyone needs help” Usually it is the woman who only has a minimum income but a big heart who helps others – “and here on my street everyone is affected, everyone needs help!” She is particularly suffering from the fact that she cannot support others in her own home in view of the disaster. In her own home – who knows how long it will be like this. The older house is only rented and was already dilapidated. “They can probably just push it away,” neighbors fear. Then the Styrian woman, who has already lost so much to the flood, will also be homeless. And not only her. Also her little dog “Bella”, whom she rescued from a kill shelter. And Chihuahua “Snowy”, who had been tied to a chain by the previous owner in such a way that it grew down his neck. And the two cats, also from the animal shelter, of course. Calming them down during the storm and bringing them to safety was also their greatest effort when the masses of water came from all sides, almost turning the alley into a river, taking away hope. And probably also the roof over the woman’s head. “It’s just maddening,” she says, who is otherwise so tough and has already mastered many difficulties in life. But this was the last straw. If you would like to support: “Die Krone hilft – Steiermark”, account: AT152081500044569523, KW Unwetter2024/Evelyn
source site-12