anniversary
Commemoration after the flood: Steinmeier and Scholz in the Ahr valley
Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier (front) is standing on the banks of the Ahr, to his right Roger Lewentz (SPD), Interior Minister of Rhineland-Palatinate. Photo: Michael Probst/AP Pool/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
The extreme flooding in the Ahr valley and in North Rhine-Westphalia killed almost 190 people. Thousands lost their four walls. A year later, the Federal President and Federal Chancellor also commemorate the flood victims.
On the first anniversary of the deadly Ahr flood disaster, state leaders are visiting the river valley in the north of Rhineland-Palatinate this Thursday.
Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier wants to speak to those affected, helpers and local politicians in the partially destroyed winegrowing villages of Altenahr and Dernau in the morning. The Rhineland-Palatinate head of government Malu Dreyer (SPD) accompanies him. Steinmeier then travels to Euskirchen in North Rhine-Westphalia to attend a memorial service for the victims there.
“Visible signal for cohesion”
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) is expected as a guest without a speech at the central commemoration event in the Ahr Valley in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler in the evening. Up to 2,000 people can gather at the public commemoration in the Kurpark of the severely flood-damaged district town. According to the state government, the memory of the victims should be combined with a “visible signal for solidarity and a common start”.
Among other things, a speech by Prime Minister Dreyer is planned. Words from four flood victims are also on the program. Dreyer ordered funeral flags to be displayed in all public buildings in Rhineland-Palatinate on Thursday. In an interview with the ARD “Tagesthemen”, the politician said on Wednesday evening that she saw no reason to apologize on behalf of the state government. “Nobody could have foreseen the extent of this catastrophe.” In addition, civil protection in Rhineland-Palatinate is local. “We need to address the question of why civil protection did not work, and what we need to do most of all for the future.”
Commemoration also in NRW
In North Rhine-Westphalia, Steinmeier and Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) want to speak in the Herz-Jesu-Kirche Euskirchen near Bonn. An exchange with relatives of the victims is also planned. Aid organizations and municipal representatives from the regions affected by the floods are also expected to attend the commemoration.
The new chairman of the parliamentary investigative committee on the flood disaster in the North Rhine-Westphalia state parliament, Sven Wolf (SPD), was confident that the committee would present results in a year. “People in the affected areas rightly expect that we won’t drag the work out until the end of the day,” Wolf told the Rheinische Post in Düsseldorf.
At least 135 people in northern Rhineland-Palatinate were killed in the flooding after extremely heavy rain on July 14 and 15, 2021 – 134 in the Ahr Valley and one man in the Eifel. Two people are still missing. More than 750 were injured. Around 40 kilometers along the Ahr, around 9,000 buildings as well as roads, bridges, rails, gas, electricity and water lines were destroyed or badly damaged. In neighboring North Rhine-Westphalia, 49 people died in the flood disaster. There was also heavy destruction here. The Leverkusen clinic also had to be evacuated.