The house has to go.

For a few hours it has been definitely clear: Thomas Hillebrandt's two-family house at Radmacherstraße 12 cannot be saved, it has to be demolished.

“Mayor Carolin Weitzel called earlier so that I wouldn't find out about it at the town hall,” says Hillebrandt and pauses briefly.

After all, he now has certainty.

Bitter certainty.

Pure burger

Political correspondent in North Rhine-Westphalia.

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Two weeks ago the Erft, otherwise a peaceful river, overflowed its banks with unprecedented force.

A brown stream swept through Blessem, first spreading and then focusing more and more terribly.

Because behind the place the water found a destination: a gravel pit.

It shot into the pit more and more madly, tearing open a large part of Radmacherstrasse meter deep, like a giant gone wild with a plow.

The Erft exposed the pipes of the sewer, tore down cars, collapsed three houses and part of a riding arena and also undermined Hillebrandt's house, which was extensively renovated only a year ago.

It is a wonder no one was killed in this apocalypse.

Especially since the situation remained extremely dangerous for days.

A moon crater, a hellhole emerged

The soaked soil at the edge of the gravel pit gradually slipped into the hole.

A crater of the moon was formed, a throat of hell.

Other places such as Bad Münstereifel or regions such as the Ahr Valley were hit even more severely in the devastating German July flood in 2021.

But the aerial photos from Blessem became the symbolic images of the catastrophe that were widespread worldwide.

The photos are also used by the big donation campaign for flood victims.

"Every day I see my white house on TV, it's famous now," says Hillebrandt.

He smiles pained.

The 61-year-old geographer lived there with his children for a long time.

He has been renting the house for some time and now lives in Bonn.

Due to the corona pandemic, the citizens' meeting must take place in the open air on a festival site that was prepared for the Erftstadt cultural summer before the flood.

A good 70 Blessemers came.

Mayor Weitzel and seven experts in geology, flood and disaster control, water and gravel management sit on the stage and try to encourage the residents with the latest findings.

All houses in Radmacherstraße have been in the restricted area for more than two weeks, which is divided into a completely cordoned off red and a yellow zone, which can only be entered for a limited time and with permission.

“At the beginning of the week we can probably move a large part of the houses in the yellow zone into the white one,” says Roland Strauss from the North Rhine-Westphalia geological service.

Everything is meticulously monitored with complex measurement technology, and the situation is reassessed every day.

Apart from the immediate demolition edge, no more subsidence, subsidence or significant soil deformations have been measured.

"We are on a good way."

The Blessemers, who were able to stay in the place or who will return, could live safely in their place in the long term after the security work is complete, says Strauss.

But what about the red zone?

When will the residents finally be able to go into their houses to secure at least a few belongings, a few mementos?

And: which houses have already been demolished, which still have to be demolished?