Ahr valley after the flood: somehow getting through the winter

It is winter – also in the destroyed Ahr valley. Four months after the flood, many heating systems have long since ceased to work and new ones are hard to come by. Many households also lack money for heating oil.

Now in November it is only a few degrees above zero at night. The people in Ahrbrück can clearly feel that winter is getting closer and closer. Like so many others in the Ahr Valley, the small town in Rhineland-Palatinate was destroyed by the floods in summer. Those who are not in alternative quarters hibernate in the floors that are still reasonably intact.

Walter Radermacher, mayor of the municipality, does the same. Fan heaters rattle in his house. Such emergency solutions are necessary for some in the village, he says. For others, currently donated air conditioning systems with a heating function are being installed. “We’re trying to somehow get people through the winter,” says Radermacher.

The supply of heat is currently the most pressing task in the disaster area, almost four months after the flood. After every helping hand was needed in the beginning, the situation in the Ahr Valley is now a bit different. The piles of rubble on the streets have largely disappeared, and many of the destroyed houses have been gutted. Now is the time for the skilled workers: “We need heating engineers, electricians, cleaners, screed layers”, Mayor Radermacher lists. “All craftsmen are currently at their limit.” And finding the right craftsman was anything but easy even before the flood disaster.

Heating engineer Wolfgang Worms travels to the flood zone every week, even though he has more than enough other things to do. There, he volunteers to coordinate around 100 colleagues who are currently installing new heaters on a piece basis. Yet the demand is much higher than what is currently available in the market. Because of the global delivery bottlenecks, there is a lack of subcomponents, such as microchips for controlling a heater or even very mundane things like cables. “Something can be delivered piece by piece by December,” says heating engineer Worms. “The big hole shouldn’t be filled again until February.”

Above all, there is a lack of money

But that’s not all: “What is most urgently missing is money,” he says. “I hear from people who have put their heating back on, but they don’t have the money to pay for the heating oil.” Worms demands that the total of 30 billion euros in state reconstruction aid be paid out more quickly.

In Rhineland-Palatinate, according to the state finance ministry, 1,730 applications for household contents allowance have been approved so far. Fixed sums are paid out for this: For a one-person household, for example, it is a maximum of 13,000 euros. In contrast, no money has yet flowed into the reconstruction of buildings. “Processing is more time-consuming in the case of building damage, since the inspection effort is higher and documents have to be submitted. In contrast to the construction aids for household items, no lump sums are paid here,” says the Ministry of Finance.

But the money is urgently needed on site, especially for new heating systems. “They can cost 30,000 euros,” says heating engineer Worms. How many heaters are still defective is difficult to quantify. The umbrella organization, in which the operation of Worms is organized, assumes in an extrapolation that the heating has not yet been repaired or replaced in around 20,000 households.

The Energy Agency Rhineland-Palatinate is trying to get an overview of how many of them are still waiting for emergency solutions. Since the end of September, those affected have been contacted who had indicated in an initial survey by the agency that their heating had been completely destroyed or that they needed an emergency solution. This telephone survey of 585 households shows that 110 households still had no heating facilities at the time of the survey.

Paul Ngahan from the energy agency takes care of solutions for these people. To do this, he travels through the Upper Ahr Valley, drives to the affected localities and organizes temporary arrangements. “In Müsch, for example, we have set up a small, oil-based local heating network for several buildings,” he explains. In other communities, such as Marienthal, a long-term heating system is already being planned for next year. A sustainable village heating network is to be created there, based on solar thermal energy and wood pellets. Elsewhere, people still rely on quick help, for example on electric heating stations, a kind of emergency unit to heat with electricity.

Construction dryers run around the clock

However, heating with electricity has its pitfalls. Because a lot of people dry their still damp houses with building dryers that run almost around the clock. That alone consumes a lot of energy. If there is an additional demand for electricity due to the electric heating, the networks could collapse. The energy agency therefore advises contacting the respective energy supplier before using an electric heater in the flood area.

The “main artery” is working again

The repair of other infrastructure is making significant progress. For example, the pipeline network for drinking water in the Ahr valley has been restored since last week. The high-pressure gas line of the energy supplier EVM is also working again – according to the state government, the “main artery” of the natural gas supply in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler.

The flood had destroyed the natural gas supply network in the urban area. According to the company, around 85 percent of the households affected have now been reconnected to the EVM network. In the old town of Ahrweiler, however, that is a challenge. “Stones and rubble penetrated the pipes there and damaged them from the inside,” said a company spokesman. At the moment some leaks still need to be found. According to the EVM, the rest of the households should be supplied again by the end of November.

However, this does not mean that every household can be heated again – that depends on whether the respective heating is working again. In any case, local mayor Radermacher is optimistic that a solution will be found for everyone. “Nobody has to freeze,” he says. Heating engineer Worms is more skeptical about the winter: “Let it be freezing outside – then we’ll really know what’s going on.”