Dealing with Disasters: Courage in Times of Flood

Two reactions to the flood disaster: The 68-year-old civil engineering contractor Hubert Schilles drove the excavator to the Steinbachtalsperre near Euskirchen to clear its drainage.

It was blocked, the water did not drain and the dam threatened to break.

That would have been certain death, not just for the man in the excavator.

It was like defusing a bomb for the first time in his life, and not because he wanted to, but because someone had to.

The man went to work and said to God, “You, Lord, must know what is happening.” So he reported it later.

His work succeeded.

A few days later, the deputy chairman of the FDP parliamentary group, Marcus Theurer, said the disaster showed a “significant system failure” for which Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer was personally responsible.

The reform proposals of the FDP have been on the table for years, but nothing has happened.

Endangering human life.

It says a lot about a country and how it copes with a disaster

The comparison of the excavator operator Schilles with the politician Theurer is to the disadvantage of the latter.

Not because one was digging and the other was talking.

But because one was selfless and the other self-righteous.

Crises demand from people what is demanded of them otherwise, only more of it and under greater pressure. That is why it says a lot about a country, how it copes with a disaster, a lot about a politician, how he analyzes the causes, and a lot about the citizens, how they deal with each other in need. 

To start with the last: In the flooded places, people helped each other as they had never helped before. Some toiled late into the night in their neighbors' houses to remove the mud. Others got into their cars hundreds of miles away to come to the rescue. For example in Grimma and Colditz, two small towns in Saxony. Now it was no longer about Wessi and Ossi, as is often the case, but about the whole. Still others prepared their guest rooms for those who now had water at home. Some even managed to pull other people out of the floods at the risk of their own lives.

Only a few Germans sought their advantage in the misfortunes of others.

Just like the flood tourists who went to the flooded areas to gawk.

Some rushed through deep puddles with extra zest that it just splashed.

Others photographed exhausted helpers as if these monkeys were in the zoo.

They blocked escape routes.

Others came up with the idea of ​​driving their bulky rubbish into the flood area to throw it on the mountains of destroyed furniture and refrigerators, which were already almost unbearable.

And scammers invented a new scam.

They offered building dryers in so-called fake shops on the Internet;

but the devices never made it to the flood victims, who ordered and paid for them in advance.

There are many ways to take advantage of the plight of others.

Anyone who is out there has not got lost.

Not the time of right-wingers

This also applies to politicians. The FDP man Theurer already speaks of “considerable system failure”, whatever would be an insignificant one, before it is even clear who has failed where and where, and makes Seehofer personally responsible. That also garnished with the remark that the FDP had known better for a long time. Even if, which has yet to be proven: It is the time of saviors, not that of those who want to be right. Of course, politicians must already analyze why the catastrophe could not be prevented. But that is work and it takes time. Even the left does not want to do this work and has already called for Seehofer's resignation.

Alice Weidel from the AfD hit the same line: On the one hand, she announced that it was only now that it became clear "how great the failure of the federal government" would be in the event of the flood. At the same time, she called for clarification about which positions within the government had failed. The attitude can be summed up in a formula: I don't know, but a lot of that. It was almost clear that the Bild newspaper would be happy to help: on the front page it shouted “Oh God”, and beneath it was the line “After a visit to the USA: Merkel NOT in the crisis area”. Yes, because on that day the Federal President was in the crisis area; the Chancellor came a day later. Hysteria from the kiosk for those for whom the tide alone was not exciting enough.

Only those who want to become wise can become wise out of damage. This will is especially good for politicians who are in the election campaign. You can now prove yourself: as people who only evaluate what they know and help instead of pretending to be.