The flood disaster claimed 134 lives in Rhineland-Palatinate alone, and 47 more deaths in North Rhine-Westphalia - this is the current status. The identification of the victims is still ongoing.
If the authorities then release the deceased, which is now gradually happening, they can be buried.
But to bury the victims with dignity, to enable the relatives to say goodbye, that is a challenge in the midst of the aftermath of the flood.
For several reasons: On the one hand, the funeral directors in the area have been affected because business premises have been flooded and hearses have been damaged. “A funeral director from Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler had his exhibition and consultation rooms on the ground floor. Since he himself lives on the floor above, he can now receive his customers there, ”reports Stephan Neuser, General Secretary of the Federal Association of German Undertakers. The around 4,500 companies that are organized in the professional association have already practiced helping each other out during the corona pandemic. The association had set up a central crisis management system and created a capacity list in which the institutes listed their vehicles, employees or body bags. This infrastructure now also helps in the current crisis:By renting out vehicles at short notice or accommodating the deceased with other colleagues. The organization Transrep International, which actually specializes in bringing the deceased abroad or fetching them back from there, helped. Now the staff at the facility have been in the flood area from the start, reports Neuser.
Devastated cemeteries must be restored
On the other hand, in many cemeteries, no funeral is currently envisaged.
When Neuser visited the flood area himself a few days ago, he mainly remembered a cemetery in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler: “There were still cars there that were washed up there.
A bridge over graves collapsed.
There are urn steles with trees on them. ”Restoring the earlier graves is certainly a“ mammoth task ”that has to be handled very carefully.
“We have to assume that it will take a long time to restore the cemeteries to the way they were before the flood,” he says.
And adds: “If anything.” It will take at least several months.
Waiting so long to say goodbye to the deceased mother or husband in a dignified manner - that is hardly an option for most relatives. In order to find an end to their grief, they shouldn't have to wait too long for a funeral. In addition, there are statutory deadlines that stipulate when the deceased must be buried at the latest - within six weeks for urn burials in North Rhine-Westphalia. An extension of these deadlines can be applied for from the authorities, and Neuser also assumes that an extension in this case would be “unproblematic in favor of”. If so, a family could have a deceased cremated now and buried later. There can be good reasons for this:When relatives want to bury the deceased in a certain cemetery, for example, or simply not yet at this point in time.
Move indefinitely or to another location
If the burial is to take place now, however, the relatives might not be buried in the local cemetery, but further away.
“Maybe there is a neighboring cemetery that is a little higher up and is still intact,” says Neuser.
Some cemeteries in the disaster area where the water stood are already being cleaned up.
However, there can be good reasons why relatives do not want to bury their deceased elsewhere - for example, if the family grave is in the local cemetery.
Relatives often only have these options: A funeral now, but in a different cemetery. Or the funeral will be postponed indefinitely. All of this in this difficult situation, in which you yourself are still in shock, possibly even affected by the consequences of the flood. As an undertaker, you have to be careful with your relatives, says Neuser. There is no magic bullet, relatives and undertakers have to discuss how to proceed in each individual case. "Ultimately, that's a decision that families have to make."