In the shadow of St. Petrus and Paulus in Odendorf, countless helpers are still busy organizing at least a bit of everyday life two and a half weeks after the disaster.
In the parish hall, flood victims can stock up on essentials - clothing donations, toys, toilet paper, detergents and washing-up liquid are piled up.
There is a field kitchen across from the Zehnthof.
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Political correspondent in North Rhine-Westphalia.
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"To this day, many people have not been able to prepare a warm meal because they have literally lost everything," says Kai Imsande, who coordinates the volunteers in Odendorf. “Without this self-organization, without the many volunteers, we would not make it”, praises Mayor Petra Kalkbrenner. Of course, there is also a lot of criticism in Swisttal of the mayor's crisis management and her administration. If you ask around from those affected, then it is said that there was insufficient or no warning of the flood and that aid money did not arrive.
Armin Laschet (CDU) will also feel this mood on Monday. The North Rhine-Westphalian Prime Minister has in the past few days in several places to get an idea of the situation in. Shortly after the disaster he was in Altena and Hagen, Bad Münstereifel visited the Union's candidate for chancellor together with Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU).
On Monday he is out and about in the Rhein-Sieg district and the Eifel, including the two Swisttal districts of Odendorf and Heimerzheim.
Laschet has been under particular scrutiny by the media since he laughed in the background during a flood visit in Erftstadt when Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier was speaking in the foreground.
The faux pas troubles Laschet in the federal election campaign.
In surveys, the Union Chancellor candidate has since lost significantly, many respondents do not consider him a good crisis manager.
Parts of houses were torn away
Odendorf was hit hard several times. The Orbach - actually a trickle that completely seeps away above Swisttal in many summers - raged terribly in the small town. The water swept through Orbachstrasse with such force that parts of houses were simply torn away. When the worst seemed over, there could be no all-clear.
Because the flooded dam of the Steinbachtalsperre in the Euskirchen district threatened to break. The tidal wave that would have resulted from this could have caused even greater devastation, which is why the affected areas had to be evacuated over a large area. For days, specialists and emergency services fight to reduce the pressure on the dam with the help of powerful pumps and to expose the bottom outlet. Only when that was successful could the residents of Orbachstrasse go back to their houses - or to what was left of the houses.
The Mayor of Swisttal welcomes Laschet without further ado. An incredible number of houses are affected, and many residents will only be able to return in many months, says Petra Kalkbrenner. “People need a perspective - not just in the short term, but in the direction of reconstruction, because anyone who flooded the ground floor and his house has in principle lost his or her existence. Less than 20 percent of those affected have elementary insurance. "