Flood disaster: Thousands of residents in the Ahr Valley in winter without heating

Many victims of the flood disaster in western Germany have to do without heating in winter.

Since large parts of the natural gas network were destroyed by the water masses in July, many people in the Ahr valley could not initially be supplied, the local energy supplier EVM announced on Thursday.

Emergency shelters are to be provided for some of those affected.

In Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, EVM reports that around 3500 grid connections will be back on gas from December at the earliest. The urban area north of the Ahr is particularly affected, said a spokeswoman. Households south of the Ahr should be reconnected in the course of October. Then the heating season usually begins with the first few days of frost. The city of Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler asked the energy suppliers EVM and Ahrtalwerke to support the citizens with alternative heating options. That could be mobile liquid gas tanks or a connection to the less destroyed district heating network, said Mayor Guido Orthen.

A certain part of the residents will not get a solution in time.

Emergency shelter in the form of containers will be provided for these people.

Orthen said there were probably a few hundred affected.

"We currently have a need for around 150 people." The number will increase, however, as many are probably only now realizing that the energy supply is not guaranteed everywhere.

Missing Ahr crossings make reconstruction difficult

The SWR reported that even further up in the Ahr valley, many residents were worried about the coming autumn and winter. The towns there had not been connected to the gas network before, and the houses usually had their own gas or heating oil tanks. In the particularly affected places such as Dernau, Altenahr, Ahrbrück or Schuld, many of the tanks were destroyed or washed away.

According to the Energieversorgung Mittelrhein (EVM), 133 kilometers of natural gas pipelines and more than 7000 network connections as well as numerous gas pressure control and measuring systems were damaged or completely destroyed by the flood in the Ahr Valley. "This is the greatest damage event in the history of our company after the Second World War," said CEO Josef Rönz. The repairs were carried out at full speed. However, since all Ahr crossings have also been destroyed, rebuilding the gas supply is particularly costly.

Meanwhile, Deutsche Post announced on Thursday that 130 vehicles had been destroyed or damaged and one branch had been "almost completely flushed," said Post CEO Tobias Meyer to the newspapers of the Funke media group on Thursday. Although there were contingency plans at the post office. “But nobody could foresee such a scenario,” said Meyer. According to Swiss Post, it is still unclear how many letters and parcels were lost in the floods. “That cannot be said in conclusion,” said Meyer.

In the afternoon before the flood, the branches were still emptied, and the vehicles were mostly empty. However, some items were lost and the post office "couldn't find any more" mailboxes. After a week at the latest, the mail could be delivered again wherever someone was still living.