37°: What We Could Save – Two Years After the Devastating Flood Disaster

The flood came to the Ahtr valley on July 14, 2021. 134 people died and thousands of houses were destroyed. About 65,000 people were completely unprepared for the flooding. Politicians promised quick help. But renovation and reconstruction work is still tough today. – For her 37° report titled “What we could save”, the reporter Iris Bettray accompanied the Ursuline sister Roswitha from Bad Münstereifel for two years, who helps those affected by organizing craftsmen and handing over donations she has collected.

Many houses in the flood area are still uninhabitable, such as that of the Erler family in Ahrweiler. A renovation seems impossible, an insurance report is still a long time coming. Meanwhile, the family of three lives in a small apartment, far from their destroyed house. “The mental stress is great,” says Christine Erler while waiting for the insurance company’s report.

The optician Nora Nechad lost both her home and her business in the flood. She temporarily lives in her parents’ house. She wants to rebuild the business, but only a part was insured, there is a lack of money, as well as of craftsmen and materials. Two years later, she and her husband are still at the construction site of their new life. But the pensioners Rosemarie and Hans-Joachim Derra also have to stay longer than expected on the upper floor of their house because of the renovation. They were lucky because the insurance company wants to pay for the damage to the house.