Flood disaster: difficult identification of victims

In the flood areas, the authorities are also faced with the difficult task of identifying the recovered bodies. In Rhineland-Palatinate alone, this has not yet been achieved with 64 people. Because everything is often destroyed, there is no DNA comparison material.

About one and a half weeks after the devastating flood disaster in Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia with at least 179 dead, the authorities are still busy identifying many victims. According to the state government in Mainz, only 68 of the 132 bodies in Rhineland-Palatinate could be clearly identified. In many cases, complex and time-consuming comparisons of DNA or dental status are necessary due to the “circumstances of death”, said Interior Minister Roger Lewentz at a press conference of the crisis team in the particularly badly destroyed Ahrweiler district.

At the same time, the authorities examined 74 missing persons, 16 of them were foreign nationals. Immediately after the disaster, there were reports and inquiries about more than 5800 wanted people.

DNA comparison material is missing

Lewentz said that the unambiguous identification of the dead as part of the death investigation process was done with the greatest consideration for the dignity of the deceased and was also an extreme burden for the police officers involved. In addition, there are previously unknown problems. “If you have no more houses, it is also very difficult with the DNA comparison material,” said Lewentz.

Burials in the disaster areas in both federal states are also difficult. In many places there is a lack of hearses, as these were also swept away by the floods, said a spokesman for the Undertaker Association of North Rhine-Westphalia. Help comes from colleagues from other circles. Due to the lengthy identification process, the legal burial deadlines could also not be met in isolated cases.

Cleanup progress

Many smaller communities in the Ahr Valley and their infrastructure were partially completely destroyed. Thousands of rescue workers are still on duty there for clean-up and relief work. Therefore, the area in the Ahrweiler district should again remain closed to private traffic.

According to the state government, the emergency services made progress over the weekend in clearing the huge mountains of rubbish and rubble. This means that other important repair work is now making better progress, said the head of the state crisis team, Bejona Hermann. Thanks to the cleared roads, the Bundeswehr can now begin building makeshift bridges over the Ahr. These are intended to replace the provisional pioneer armored bridges that soldiers first erected there. The flood destroyed a total of more than 30 bridges.

Considerations for the federal election

Meanwhile, the authorities in Rhineland-Palatinate began to think about the organization of the federal elections in the areas destroyed by the flood. This is currently not the top priority, but the state election committee is already beginning to do so, said Lewentz. The use of government buses is conceivable, for example. The disaster also destroyed the administrative infrastructure in many places, including buildings and computers.