Ahrweiler, Germany: Steel Joerg Meyrer Steel himself before walking through a pile of mud debris which pervaded the city that was once beautiful in the AHR valley which grew in German wine.
Over the past five days, the 58-year-old Catholic priest pulled Galoshnya and walked on the streets to try to provide comfort to his people when they continued the dingy task to clean up what was destroyed by Flash flood Wednesday – and restored their bodies that perished in it.
“It came to us like a tsunami,” remember Meyrer.
“Bridges, houses, apartments, utility pipes – everything that is actually this city, what is his life, has gone since that night.” The Ahrweiler resident was told to expect the AHR River, the Rhine River, to Crest at 7 meters (almost 23 feet), but Meyrer said a little understanding what it meant.
The last serious flood in the southern region of Bonn was more than a century ago.
Nearly 200 people were killed when heavy rains diverted the flow into a raging torrent in all parts of West Germany and Belgium, and officials put the dead in Ahrweiler District alone at 110, making it the most difficult region.
Meyrer, who expected that number increased significantly, said the victims came from all walks of life.
“The parents who died in bed because they could not wake up or because they did not hear it; young people who died a few minutes after helping others; the people who died in their car because they wanted to drive him up when the flood waves were surprised they.” City residents told the gloomy cases of sadness delayed, because the realization began to sink that those who were reported missing would not return.
Meyrer said he was called when firefighters found the body of a woman he knew well.
“Her husband knew his wife had been in the basement and he had to wait two days for him to be restored,” he said.
For now, many residents focus on cleaning before dealing with the old duties of rebuilding.
“We need to start from the beginning,” said Paddy Amanatidis, owner of La Perla Pizzeria, when he rested from cleaning the debris from the restaurant.
“We fight with our way (Pandemic Coronavirus) and floods will also not reduce us,” he said, adding that the solidarity shown by neighbors and friends has helped increase enthusiasm.
Meyrer believes that even for those who are fortunate enough to not lose loved ones, the big impact of the disaster has not fully hit them.
“When the first lot (debris) has been cleaned and people have nothing to do, then I think many people will understand for the first time what they lose and what they mean,” he said.
German officials have refused allegations that they failed to warn the severity of the flood but conceded that more lessons could be learned from disaster.
Experts say global warming can make such floods even more often.
Upriver in the village of Schuld, most of which was destroyed, Mayor Helmut Lussi said the scar will last a long time.
“Our lives change from one day to the next day,” he told German Chancellor Merkel, who visited on Sunday.
As for the mourning the victims, Meyrer said that a frightening task would need clergy from all over the city and so on.
Apart from the number of dead people, the authorities must also look for where to bury them, because of the local grave too, with flooding, with almost no tombstone standing.
While the Gothic wall has just been renovated in the 13th century St.
Lawrence Church still untouched by floods, Meyrrer plans to continue walking on the streets for now, offering help, sympathetic ears and shoulders to cry.
But even he was struggling, saying that prayer did not come easily in the days since the disaster struck.
“I have no words, time, peace,” he said.
“I can’t do that now.” “At night I tried to say, ‘Sir, somehow you have to take over now.’ It must be good enough, “he added.
In a flooded German city, a priest struggled to provide comfort
