The floods in North Rhine-Westphalia in the summer of 2021 caused around 13 billion euros in damage. It was particularly bad in the Eifel. Not all flood damage has been erased. Emotional support is required. A trauma center is to be created.
Euskirchen (dpa / lnw) - the flood disaster was a year and a half ago in mid-January - but the consequences are far from being eliminated. Euskirchen District Administrator Markus Ramers (SPD) believes that the reconstruction in the district is progressing well overall. "Even if this joint effort represents the most challenging of its kind for us since the Second World War," he says. This succeeds because the people are firmly united in the will to rebuild their homeland.
The district of Euskirchen was particularly hard hit by the flood of the century. More than half of the 49 flood victims in North Rhine-Westphalia came from this region in the Eifel.
In all of NRW, the estimated damage from the disaster in July 2021 totals 13 billion euros. By just before Christmas 2022, private households and companies in the housing industry had submitted almost 22,000 applications for support from the state's reconstruction fund. The NRW Ministry of Construction announced in Düsseldorf that a total of 627 million euros were being paid out.
Victims from the disaster area still need psychosocial support. The Malteser relief service operates the Schleidener Tal relief center in the Euskirchen district with the town of Schleiden. Two psychotherapists work here and drive to appointments in the flood area. "The offers are still being used," reports Ina Singer, deputy project manager at Malteser flood relief in North Rhine-Westphalia.
While the first few months for flood victims were about basic needs such as a place to sleep, now the emotional needs are becoming clear. A joint trauma center for the towns of Schleiden, Hellenthal and Kall is to be created. There will be therapeutic offers for those affected by the floods in the three communities.
In 2022, train traffic in the Eifel will return to normal. The train has been running between Cologne and Kall again since July. The next section to Nettersheim on the border with Rhineland-Palatinate should be ready by the end of 2023. The railway line between Bonn and Euskirchen has been in operation again since May. Work is still underway on the route between the district town of Euskirchen and medieval Bad Münstereifel. Trains are not scheduled to run again until the end of 2023.
