Six months after the flood: How Stolberg is struggling to find normality

A mayor without a town hall, apartments without heating and waiting for aid money – even six months after the flood disaster, the people of Stolberg are still fighting trauma and rubble.

“Those were difficult, lonely decisions,” Patrick Haas remembers the flood night in July. As the mayor of Stolberg near Aachen, he normally does not decide about the life and death of the almost 60,000 inhabitants. But that night on July 15, nothing was normal in Stolberg.

Looking back, he describes the decision “not to send any more lifeguards out because the water was so fast that they were putting themselves in danger” as the worst situation that night. The rescuers were urgently needed. For example in the district of Vicht, where the power went out in a supply center for people with disabilities. The life of the people on ventilators depended on an emergency power generator that threatened to literally “drown” in the water masses, he reports.

The town hall was also destroyed

Haas still looks exhausted when he thinks back to the night. He’s sitting in a makeshift conference room. White walls, the furniture looks thrown together. The town hall was also so destroyed in the floods that the entire city administration had to move – including the mayor’s office.

Haas calls it the “luck of the fit” that nobody drowned in the floods in Stolberg that night – unlike in other parts of North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate. In total, more than 180 people die in the raging masses of water.

Water masses such as at the Vichtbach. Haas walks from his new, temporary workplace in an insurance company building to his former office. A bridge crosses the creek. The fact that the Vicht flooded the city center, including the town hall and other districts, and destroyed it with a roar – when you see the idyllic watercourse in its bed, it’s hard to imagine.

Waiting for aid money

Everyone knows the mayor on Rathausstrasse. Again and again he is greeted and addressed. He grew up in Stolberg and was carnival prince a few years ago. He still lives here with his family today.

Traffic is now flowing normally again along the former shopping street. The gaping hole that the flood tore in the street has been repaired. Most of the rubble has been removed. What remains are former shops and restaurants with drying equipment, shop windows barred with boards – and people who are still waiting for aid money.

In North Rhine-Westphalia, according to the federal government, the September floods caused damage of almost 14 billion euros, in Rhineland-Palatinate alone in private households around 10 billion euros. The Aachen city region, to which Stolberg belongs, is one of the most devastated regions in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Cash for a fresh t-shirt

The city supported those affected right from the start with emergency aid, explains Mayor Haas. “It was really about giving people cash. For a fresh T-shirt, for a mobile phone card.” The state government, with the support of the federal government, has paid out a total of around 102 million euros in emergency aid to private households throughout North Rhine-Westphalia, according to the Ministry of Construction.

“But you have to be aware that there are people who weren’t that badly affected by the flood,” says Haas. That was accepted in Stolberg in order to help those who were really in need. If it is now a question of paying out a lot of money, the applications would have to be correspondingly more complex so that one can check who is really entitled to aid money, according to the mayor. However, the city, together with the district, tried to help people with their applications with information buses and other contact points.

More than 11,000 applications for reconstruction aid

Now the applications are with the district government. “In my opinion, there is a lack of trained staff,” says Haas. Whether the country has perhaps not provided enough people or that the district government is not properly coordinated is not his issue.

Those affected have submitted around 11,300 applications for reconstruction aid throughout NRW. Now, half a year after the flood, around 8,700 of these, i.e. almost 77 percent, have been checked or approved according to the Ministry of Building. Around 99 million euros are in the payment process. The ministry has not been able to say for months how many people have actually received money.

The sluggish payments annoy Mayor Haas: People keep coming to him who have still not received flood aid. “It really kills me,” he says indignantly.

The cold is a problem

At the old town hall, site fences prevent anyone from entering the building. A young man approaches Haas about requests for grants. M-Obaida Dehna asks that the mayor should visit them for the citizens’ consultation hour. He studies social work and volunteers to help those affected by the floods.

“The times are difficult for people right now,” he says. “I could list the problems for hours: Definitely the cold. There are still people who don’t have proper, functioning heating at home.” Some didn’t want to get out of their cold apartments, the prospective social worker continues. And hotels are not an option for many six months after the flood. “They want a permanent home, but that’s difficult in the city.” It is good if those affected come into contact with the mayor. Haas promises to come.

“Otherwise we won’t need to build up the city anymore”

He has many plans for the city. And it needs the support of the public. Haas wants to make the city flood-proof. Above all, it should be quick – with a model concept that is currently being developed. That should be finished this spring.

Rainwater retention basins, targeted flood protection on certain buildings, but also, for example, widening the river bed, could help. “I expect the money from the state and the federal government to implement this. Otherwise we wouldn’t need to build up the city anymore,” says Haas. You owe it to people, but also to companies, so that the next flood doesn’t end in tragedy again.

Giving up is not an option for him. The solidarity of the people in Stolberg after the flood also gave him strength. Nevertheless, he can understand the concerns of the people of Stolberg about their city. “It won’t be the way it used to be,” the mayor is convinced. “But we have to work on making it even nicer. And then we have to look to the future with positive thoughts.”