Tobias Kunz has been in constant stress since this Saturday, June 1, at six in the morning. The mayor of Nordendorf, a small community of 2,600 inhabitants north of Augsburg, is desperately fighting against flooding from the Schmutter River. Together with 300 volunteers, he tries to save the local elementary school.
“Yesterday we filled 40,000 sandbags and with them we built a 240-meter-long dam. The helpers sometimes spend 40 hours on their feet, without sleeping. But with today’s extreme amount of water, even that was not enough,” he said this Sunday to DW.
Volunteers hurriedly carry sandbags back and forth. Kunz coordinates operations and answers incessant questions. There was no choice but to cancel classes for this Monday, he explains sadly. But what depresses him the most is that the fight against water around the new sports field was lost in a very short time; the dam broke.
“In a quarter of an hour our school sports field, in which around a million (euro) was invested, was under water. Everything that has to do with the infrastructure is flooded. Our sewage system does not work either, the students couldn’t even go to the bathroom.”
Baden-Wurtermberg and Bavaria underwater
What Nordendorf is experiencing is also happening in many communities in southern Germany: the dams cannot support the masses of water and dozens of towns have to be evacuated.
The preliminary assessment: In some places, more rain fell in 24 hours than the average for an entire month, and water levels rose to levels only reached once every 100 years. The federal states of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria were particularly affected this weekend and disaster alarms were activated in some communities. At least four people have died.
For many, the magnitude of the flooding came as a complete surprise. As for the four young people that DW found this Sunday, somewhat undecided, a few kilometers further south, in Kühlenthal. Their problem: They could no longer reach the house they had so diligently protected on Saturday with sandbags. The town was evacuated and could only be reached with rubber boots.
“It is the house of the parents of one of us, who are currently on vacation in Austria. Yesterday we tried to save what could be saved, but the water really came from all directions. At least we were able to get two cars up the mountain,” they explain to DW.
Better prepared after the Ahr Valley disaster
In Diedorf, a few kilometers west of Augsburg, six car owners were not so lucky. An underground parking lot was completely flooded, as were the basements of surrounding houses. Employees of the Federal Technical Aid Agency pump out the brown broth with a special device: 10,000 liters per minute, under pressure.
A dike and dam also broke in Diedorf. The flood waters are slowly receding and the water level is dropping again, but no one at the small fire station is yet thinking about raising the alarm. Philipp Niegl, the so-called first commander of the fire brigade, works – like everyone – on a voluntary basis. His profession, and paid employment, is that of a teacher.
“This time the Nina alert app worked very well, as did the disaster control siren. After the flood of the century in the Ahr Valley, we updated the equipment again to be better prepared: we now have a supply truck that can also cross deep waters. This time it was able to transport many people,” he says.
Evacuation camps in record time
People who were evacuated and had nowhere to sleep with family or friends were able to spend the night in the Diedorf sports hall.
In the city of Augsburg, the central reception center for all stranded people is the huge exhibition center. In record time, a camp was set up here for 300 affected people.
Augsburg has experience in combating disasters, stresses spokesman Raphael Dodere. On Christmas 2016, the city had to evacuate 54,000 people due to a World War II bomb. This Saturday, evacuees reached 170. “Most of them are elderly people who live in nursing homes,” he explains.
There were still about 70 people in the huge reception room this Sunday, including Sabine Fischer’s parents and two neighbors.
“Now we are here waiting and waiting, and we don’t know how much water has entered our property,” Fischer told DW: “It was simply unimaginable for us that the situation was so serious. Our only wish is to return home as soon as possible.”
(rml/cp)
Image: Stefan Puchner/dpa/picture alliance
