Germany after the flooding | DW Documentary

[Music] it's a natural disaster on a shocking scale with heavy rain causing rivers to burst their banks whole streets ripped away by the flood waters houses collapsed livelihoods destroyed more than 160 people have lost their lives at least we're alive there are so many dead it's unbelievable you can't begin to imagine what happened here [Music] such freak weather events are unusual in germany but despite the shock communities are coming together united in their efforts to tackle the disaster [Music] the meese family have never known anything like it they've spent days in the mud trying to salvage what they can from the ground floor and cellar of their house in the town of the property has been devastated by flooding from the ah normally a small river it was turned into a raging torrent by days of heavy rain it destroyed everything in its path then done some helps if it rains heavily in autumn or there's melt water it can get a bit wild the river rises very quickly then drops right back down again but what's just happened is inconceivable the furniture and the drinks and everything from the cellar are strewn across the neighborhood the water is finally receding leaving behind mud debris and a trail of destruction on the night of the flood klaus mies was most concerned about his five children the situation got critical when the water forced its way into the ground floor mies was able to carry a disabled child to safety upstairs only just in time i came down and heard the water rushing through the yard then i saw it shooting out of the drains in fountains a meter high the whole drainage system was overflowing it all filled up so fast the cellar and ground floor were flooded and the building back there where i have my office this is what's left of the office there's no way the building engineer can work here in any case the area has no power we'll have to tell our clients that we need to put jobs on hold we can't do anything the computers are down we'll try to get it people to save the hard drives but we'll just have to see what happens there were warnings of heavy rainfall but many say these weren't urgent enough people in valportzheim were among those caught by surprise the streets are piled high with ruined furniture carpets household items only heavy-duty vehicles can get through volunteers are scrambling to clear the mud before it dries and hardens the tranquil river r has shown it's also capable of ripping out tree trunks and bringing down bridges farrah david only moved into her house a few months ago now her new home and her investment are in ruins we'd refurbished everything and put on an extension everything was newly done under floor heating tiling bathroom kitchen all new and then came the flood nearly everything affected by the flood will have to be thrown out trucks will take the debris away clean up is complicated by the fact that in many areas there's no cell phone coverage the flooding was nearly all in western germany in rhineland-palatinate and parts of north rhine-westphalia later it also affected the south ensure now on the koenigsegg lake an entire hillside was swept away [Music] the country's technical relief agency as well as the police and the army have all been brought in [Music] but some say the emergency response has been chaotic there's no organization no one's taking responsibility we've been left alone to fend for ourselves the fire service is only responsible for rescues there are no police at all i did see an armored car yesterday but there's no official presence nothing in contrast there's no shortage of volunteers and not all of them are locals some have traveled hundreds of kilometers to help out others are from neighboring towns higher up than availa in the same district we were spared it did rain but that was all it didn't come into people's houses we know from previous years that there can be serious flood damage so we thought let's go down to neuana and availa and see how it looks and see whether we can help out i actually feel better down here because up there at home i can't get the images out of my head it's just crazy it's better to be down here where at least you can help as much as you can it was better that's my life in here from cambridge it's not survivor vald porzheim was badly hit and things were just as grave in the village of shuld also on the r an aerial view shows the scale of the devastation the river coils right around the village on the night the rains came it tightened like a noose around this community of 660 people houses washed away cars scattered like toys mud and wreckage everywhere now residents try to deal with the damage to their homes and businesses the mood is edgy if you don't have disaster insurance then you've had it it'll all just have to come down and that's that not everyone is being allowed back into their houses those who are often find themselves in shock now they must start to deal with the aftermath of the flooding this was a car repair shop a family business a lifetime's investment all gone tanya khupari zalfen is helping her brother to salvage what he can [Music] this is what's left of my brother's workshop he's lost nearly everything there's no more work he'll just have to start from scratch there's dejection but also anger anger at the politicians who rush to the areas hit by the flooding emotions are running high and buckets and brooms with them to help that's okay but if they've just come to gawk then they should stay away it's a dilemma for chancellor angela merkel and the other politicians who visited the disaster zones they know that electioneering will not go down well with people who've been struck by devastation they also don't want to get in the way of emergency services but if they stay away people will say they're too fancy to get their hands dirty at the end of the day political leaders have to show their faces in the affected areas to offer both help and encouragement the federal and state governments are right behind you we'll work together to put things right in this beautiful region authorities are promising to make hundreds of millions of euros available with affected families getting an initial payment of three and a half thousand euros that money is badly needed in valportzheim a few days on from our first visit and the cleanup operation is going well clean water is rinsing away the dirt and the streets are at least partly free of mud the coronavirus kept people apart over the last year but the flooding has brought them back together cleanup crews are on site the volunteers are still working tirelessly some of the debris has been cleared from the streets the sellers have been pumped out and people's houses are dry that's a big step forward everyone's really pleased about that the me's family too are beginning to catch their breath so we're hoping to get running water and of course electricity back then maybe we can salvage it the cleanup is a massive job for the family they haven't managed to tackle the rear building yet the water was up to this level here the imagination is here so it's all gone underwater you get the idea at least the barbecue is still working and they found some frozen meat in the cellar they may have lost a great deal in this disaster but they're thankful for what they still have you

Channel: DW Documentary

Views: 1,558,382

Keywords: Documentary, Documentaries, documentaries, DW documentary, full documentary, DW, documentary 2021, Germany, Rhineland-Palatinate, flooding, floods, natural disaster

Id: CPIpFU3JEl0

Length: 12min 26sec (746 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 22 2021