There are still enormous amounts of garbage in the disaster area in the Rhineland-Palatinate district of Ahrweiler.
The floods had spread out battered cars, parts of houses and bridges, as well as the furnishings from the buildings in the valley.
In front of the house entrances, muddy objects that have been cleared out by the residents are now piling up everywhere.
The district administrator of the Ahrweiler district, Jürgen Pföhler (CDU), warned on Monday that the garbage was "infectious": "There is a risk of epidemics." In many places, houses that were rated as at risk of collapse were torn down by the rescue workers.
These huge piles of rubble also have to be transported out of the sometimes very narrow valley.
Julian Staib
Political correspondent for Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland based in Wiesbaden.
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Jonas Jansen
Business correspondent in Düsseldorf.
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After two days of targeted rubbish and rubbish being taken out, there is now "first progress", said a police spokesman in Koblenz on Tuesday morning. At the weekend, the evacuation was hardly possible. There was a "chaotic traffic situation", said Begona Hermann, the deputy president of the supervisory and service directorate (ADD) of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The authority manages the on-site operation. The removal of the garbage and the access for the rescue workers would no longer have worked at all. Therefore, the authorities initially prohibited private traffic in the region for private individuals from abroad until Friday. Thousands of private helpers are still on duty, who are taken to the affected cities in shuttle buses. The use of private helpers is "expressly desired",said Hermann.
The Interior Minister of Rhineland-Palatinate, Roger Lewentz (SPD), spoke of a willingness to help from the entire republic "as it has never been before". Lewentz corrected the number of people still missing on Monday down, so it is 74. At the weekend, the number was estimated at 150 people. 132 people were killed and 766 injured. 68 of the 132 dead have so far been identified, according to Lewentz. It is possible that fatalities were driven into the Rhine, the Ahr had an enormous flow speed at the time of the disaster. The identification should now also be carried out with a DNA comparison. Lewentz described it as "difficult to get to DNA material when, for example, houses are no longer there". He announcedthat service buses would now be used with citizens' office suitcases from Bundesdruckerei to issue temporary papers to the people in the region. These are also necessary for calling up aid funds.
Many places without electricity, water and cell phone reception
Many places in the affected areas are still without electricity and water, and there is still no cell phone reception in many places.
More than 60 bridges in the region were destroyed.
The Bundeswehr initially built so-called pioneer bridges, which are now to be gradually replaced by temporary bridges.
According to Hermann von der ADD, a third step will then have to be to determine where bridges should be rebuilt in the long term.
In North Rhine-Westphalia, the situation has eased in many places after the floods. However, many places are still far from normalcy; For example, the Rhein-Erft district pointed out on Tuesday that tap water in the particularly affected district of Erftstadt-Blessem, southwest of Cologne, must continue to be boiled. In the place where many houses were destroyed by a slipped gravel pit, residents were allowed to return to their apartments and houses for an hour on Tuesday. They were able to fetch clothes and valuables near the edge of the eroded gravel pit. So that the houses can dry out and there is as little mold as possible, they should also open the windows and lower the shutters halfway.
On Wednesday, State Environment Minister Ursula Heinen-Esser wants to get an idea of the situation in the city of Stolberg near Aachen, which is also badly affected by the flooding. Together with the mayor and representatives of the Institute for Hydraulic Engineering and Water Management at RWTH Aachen University and the Eifel-Rur Water Association, the minister wants to talk about the consequences and consequences of the flood.