The floods in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate also destroyed town halls, fire brigade buildings, daycare centers and schools.

With the flood three weeks ago, the infrastructure was destroyed in many places.

The North Rhine-Westphalian municipal and home minister Ina Scharrenbach is currently having the municipal damage recorded.

"In the administrative district of Cologne alone, the preliminary damage is over 850 million euros," said the CDU politician of the FAZ, referring to the municipal infrastructure alone.

Jan Hauser

Editor in business.

  • Follow I follow

She names this district with the districts of Euskirchen, Rhein-Sieg, Rhein-Erft and the city region of Aachen as the most affected administrative district. At the special ministers' conference next Tuesday, the state government wants to push for a quick development fund. "I expect billions of euros that will be needed for the reconstruction in North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Bavaria and Saxony," said Scharrenbach.

Heavy rain had triggered floods in rivers in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate three weeks ago and destroyed roads, bridges and houses. 141 people died in Rhineland-Palatinate, 17 more are missing. There were 47 deaths in North Rhine-Westphalia. The masses of water have washed over entire villages. The town hall is now out of service in Kall, Swisttal, Rheinbach and Stolberg. "Some of the most important town hall functions are located in neighboring towns or in a few free rooms at the local fire brigade and work from there," said Scharrenbach. That is not a permanent condition.

The consequences of the flood disaster can therefore be seen in around 180 of 396 municipalities in North Rhine-Westphalia.

"Most of the small and medium-sized municipalities are massively affected," said the minister.

The water masses had a particularly bad effect on the public infrastructure in the districts of Euskirchen, Rhein-Sieg and Rhein-Erft.

Prime Minister Armin Laschet (CDU) had spoken of the fact that municipal buildings such as daycare centers and town halls should be given priority.

Insurers expect billions in damages

The insurance industry estimates the insured flood damage for North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate at 4 to 5 billion euros.

This could be higher than the damage of 4.65 billion euros caused by the floods on the Elbe and Oder in 2002.

How big the current damage in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate actually turns out to be remains to be seen.

Many houses are uninhabitable, and the communal infrastructure also has to be rebuilt.

Eschweiler could lose its indoor swimming pool, which has a technical damage of 10 million euros.

The secondary school with more than 1000 students was outsourced.

In Stolberg the city archive was also under water in the town hall, which stored documents there in the basement that date back to the 17th century.

In Kall, the flood also penetrated the fire station.

The willingness to help is shown again and again.

With donations, the municipality of Kall is increasing the state's emergency aid for private individuals by 10 percent.

For example, a family with two children receives an additional 300 euros.

65 million euros to start with

Scharrenbach calls the helpfulness on site priceless.

She reports that the state government in North Rhine-Westphalia transferred 65 million euros for first aid on July 23.

With this, cities and municipalities can remove and clear the first damage and ward off dangers.

It is also clear that this is hardly enough.

"The emergency aid is just a start," she said.

The floods often damaged or destroyed listed buildings.

That worries the minister as well.

"The private owners will not be able to handle the renovation and maintenance on their own," she said.

In Bad Münstereifel there is damage of around 50 million euros to the historical and cultural heritage alone.