What was initially created as a temporary solution shortly after the flood has now established itself as the most well-known and popular wine hiking event in the region many different stands will be set up along the red wine hiking trail as well as in the wine towns of Dernau hosted by various wineries and gastronomy businesses Visitors can discover the culinary diversity of top-notch wines and picturesque nature in the unique wine landscape of the Middle Ahr on all weekends and holidays In addition to the offerings on the 15-kilometer high path many businesses in the wine towns are now also open for visitors The decision on which stands and businesses to visit and which wines to taste can be made entirely individually which will indicate the locations of participating businesses as well as helpful information such as bus stops and rescue points there will once again be an event calendar listing all events taking place during the period of the hiking event A vineyard road snakes along the wooded hill in Germany’s Ahr Valley that hides what was once the biggest of state secrets: a vast doomsday bunker a Germany that had barely crawled out from the rubble found itself at the nuclear front line between East and West The leaders of the fledgling country of West Germany needed a place of escape should the next war erupt on their doorstep they identified a location for an alternate emergency seat of government The safe harbor is a 30-minute drive from the West German capital of Bonn and was built in an old railroad tunnel in the picturesque spa town of Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler My wife and I embarked on the two-hour journey from Kaiserslautern to see this fortification for ourselves it was hard to spot until we saw the ominous-looking entrance of concrete block and rusted iron A guided tour is required to visit the underground complex Tours are offered in German and English by appointment We learned that the bunker was originally conceptualized in 1913 as a railroad tunnel connecting Germany and France it became part of plans to support German troop movements during World War I the costly and unfinished railroad project was abandoned damp and dark tunnels were used for mushroom cultivation portions of Werner von Braun’s V2 rocket were manufactured there and it later served local citizens as an air raid shelter As the Cold War launched new fears of a nuclear disaster a top-secret underground bunker was designed to shelter all important political and military leaders the bunker’s construction was kept from the public It was considered the most secret building in West Germany even while winemaking continued uninterrupted in the surrounding hills journalists and spies alike picked up on the clandestine activities — literally through the grapevine After German reunification the bunker was abandoned a 600-foot-long restored portion of the bunker now bears witness to the horrors that West German leadership once contemplated Our tour proceeded through tiled decontamination showers that line the entryway Germany’s top leadership would have stripped and washed themselves of any nuclear fallout before entering an elaborate airlock path of two security layers Visitors can see rooms where war planners would have tracked troop movements and political developments A small television studio offered the ability to record messages for survivors above An adjacent barber workspace enabled the chancellor ministers and generals to maintain a proper hairdo and trim before appearing on screen A meeting area was outfitted with magenta chairs and a white table against decidedly clashing mint green walls the few dashes of bright color in a vast sea of beige and forest green tones intended to calm the anxious minds of the entombed once-cutting-edge communication and encryption machines stood ready to transmit orders and messages to military units and friendly governments The upstairs consisted mostly of 936 military-style bunk rooms and bathrooms Only the president and chancellor had private rooms as well as a aquifer water and a filtered air supply Kitchens and store rooms holding provisions and thousands of meal-ration kits would sustain as many as 3,000 people for up to 30 days our guide said one would just hope for the best the $14 million cost of annual upkeep and the development of more powerful bombs made the bunker obsolete Most of the sprawling system was demolished down to its railroad tunnel origins or allowed to be flooded by groundwater Our tour ended at a towering metal gate that separated the museum space from the once-again bare and empty railway tunnel nearly 120 feet underground Take the exit to the B267 toward Altenahr and follow signs to the museum but spots fill quickly during the summer tourist season the nearest stops are Ahrweiler Markt and Walporzheim The closest bus stop is located at the Roemervilla Museum it is an 800-yard uphill walk to the bunker site tours for individual visitors take place on Wednesdays Food: The small museum cafe will reopen in the summer When the Ahr River burst its banks in 2021 188 people died and whole villages and towns were destroyed When the waters rose, Meike and Dörte Näkel weren’t worried. People in this part of the world, the Ahr valley in Germany, are used to it. The river flooded in 2016, bursting its banks and rising almost four metres in catastrophes remembered only in stories read from history books to bored schoolchildren The sisters’ great-grandmother Anna Meyer lived through the 1910 flood although she never spoke of it to Meike and Dörte They are the fifth generation of their family to make wine in the village of Dernau who has dark hair that comes down to her waist widely credited with transforming it from a place where sugar was added routinely to cheap bad wine into a region with award‑winning vintages After studying at the prestigious Hochschule Geisenheim University, the sisters took over the family estate, Meyer-Näkel Dörte (left) and Meike Näkel. Photograph: Sandra FehrThis is red wine country. Tourists come from across Germany and the surrounding countries to hike the red wine trail walking from village to village to drink pinot noir from local producers The slopes are so steep that you wonder how anyone could pick the grapes without tumbling down yet every September the harvest is brought in without incident The Ahr threads its way through the villages of Schuld then Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler – the biggest town in the Ahr valley – and on to Sinzig the rain was pounding and the river was near-bursting The sisters and their employees worked quickly to lay down sandbags and close the doors and windows to the winery The corrugated iron sheeting on the warehouse walls began to buckle and fold The water rose so quickly that the sisters took refuge up a flight of stairs in the winery but they weren’t sure if the metal platform on which they were sitting would collapse There was no way of accessing the roof and nowhere else to go “We thought: it’s not so far – maybe we can swim to the vineyards Flood damage at the Meyer-Näkel winery in Dernau.They entered the water It was only 15 metres or so from the winery to higher ground “But there was no chance of swimming,” Dörte says “The water just took you where it wanted to.” For a while until the water rose so much that the fence was beneath their feet It was relentless; they could no more swim their way out of it than they could make it run uphill They would spend the next eight hours shivering in its branches detached from their foundations like boats that had slipped their moorings The tree on which they were sitting suddenly didn’t seem so sturdy “There was no chance to get to another place,” says Meike “The strength of the water was so incredible.” listening to the shrieks and groans of the crashing water and the wails from nearby rooftops The rain had fallen with such intensity that by 5.30pm the main road in Altenahr had become a second river the villagers who had stayed on lower land to protect their homes and businesses began shouting to each other Across the region, 150mm of rain fell in 72 hours The water level is believed to have risen as much as 10 metres that night because all the measuring apparatus was washed away leaving only high-water marks on buildings for the scientific record All over the Ahr, in Ahrweiler, in Dernau, in Altenahr, the cemeteries gave up their dead. The freshly buried rose first, then the long-departed. Rescue workers would later sift through the mud and the silt to recover these bodies, but also those whose lives were stolen by the flood waters. That night, 188 people died in Germany many older people who were asleep or unable to get to higher floors German prosecutors are considering bringing negligent homicide charges against an Ahrweiler district official; the individual in question denies any wrongdoing Entire buildings were washed away with their inhabitants trapped inside Bodies were found as far away as Rotterdam a family-owned guesthouse on the main square in Altenahr watched in horror from her upstairs window as the house across from her was wrenched from its foundations with an elderly couple stuck inside She didn’t know if her building would be next people will say: ‘The floods won’t come again.’ But they willCharlotte BurggrafIn Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler scarcely a street in either of the twinned towns was spared About 8,800 homes were destroyed across the region When the waters receded on the morning of 15 July people who had lived in Ahrweiler their entire lives couldn’t orient themselves “It was like I was standing on the moon,” says Marc Adeneuer “It was unbelievable.” He stood in the town square for 15 minutes He went to the cemetery where his son and his father were buried as they waited for a rescue they weren’t sure would come Meike and Dörte tried to keep their spirits up What had become of the 380 barrels in their winery They soon came to the conclusion that everything must have been destroyed They tried to remember if they had flood insurance (They did.) The next question: would they cut their losses and walk away the fish-scale roofs glint in the winter sun and the medieval timbered houses lean charmingly you can drink from fine crystal glasses on pale wood benches We want to talk about quality.” Adeneuer agrees: “We don’t want pity.” But the tourists haven’t returned in their old numbers. There aren’t enough hotels open, but, more importantly, the infrastructure isn’t there. The railway line between Walporzheim and Ahrbrück was washed away in the flood and won’t be rebuilt until the end of 2025 The picturesque Ahr cycle path is mostly closed Many of the campsites that appealed to younger and more cost-conscious tourists won’t reopen; they should never have been permitted in the first place The hillsides are too rocky and vertiginous while the schist bedrock doesn’t allow water to infiltrate meaning that rainwater shoots off the hills in torrential flows Steffi Nelles (right) and Andrea Babic inside Haus Caspari in Altenahr which is still a construction site nearly three years on Photograph: Thomas Lohnes/The GuardianWithout enough beds or a way of getting to the nearby cities of Cologne and Bonn the tourists mostly don’t come; when they do leaving before dinner instead of wining and dining until late in the night but they don’t want to walk through the dirt on their holidays for two weeks.” and especially in the villages further up the valley construction trucks spray gravel across the road and spindly cranes pick at the hillsides The landscape is pockmarked with diggers and piles of earth you see construction placards and metal fencing workers in hard hats and scaffolders with poles portable toilets and piles of building materials children go to school in shipping containers You will find derelict houses along all the main streets in Altenahr and Dernau some have owners who are involved in tortuous disputes with governments and insurers the Altenahr guesthouse her grandfather bought after the second world war eight-bedroom guesthouse – there are two smaller buildings that Nelles hasn’t even begun to refurbish – is a building site We struggle to hear each other over the burring of drills Nelles says she was assured by various professionals that government funds and insurance payouts would cover the cost of her rebuild only to realise later that she couldn’t claim as much as she had hoped She is €800,000 short of what she needs to complete the work we have no plan for what to do now,” she says We made this plan and everything was going to be finished for them and they were looking forward to it Altenahr’s main square in the aftermath of the flooding.After the floods when the entire German press decamped to the Ahr Nelles’ neighbours gave interviews and started crowdfunding pages that raised thousands of euros “Why didn’t you go on television and put your kids in the front row and say: ‘We are poor people – please give us money’ Because other people did that and they are now finished with building – they live a good life.” Hundreds of people travelled to the Ahr in the aftermath of the floods to work as volunteers Nelles would be working in a human chain to shift flood debris and suddenly a total stranger would join the chain “You had this feeling you are not alone,” she says “People came and helped you.” But there were also disaster tourists taking pictures,” Nelles says in disbelief Nelles has only enough money to pay the builders for another fortnight “We don’t know what will happen,” she says But something must work out.” She takes me on a tour of the partly refurbished building The reception area has been freshly tiled with green porcelain; the day the tiles arrived was a good day where an electrician is at work on a fuse board that takes up most of the wall She inspects her €8,000 industrial cake mixer The sisters have invested in better windows blocked up their basement windows and built a small wall to go around the perimeter of the guesthouse But it won’t protect them from another flood of the magnitude of 2021’s – they know that There is a well-known term in hydrological circles: flood dementia people tend to forget about historical events,” says Stefan Greiving a professor of spatial planning at the Technical University of Dortmund Instead they built the Nürburgring racing track to create jobs during a time of high unemployment Flood-affected communities in the Ahr are actually disincentivised from making their homes more flood-resilient which includes Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler and surrounding villages people are required to rebuild on a one-for-one basis and you want to move the science laboratory from the ground floor to the third so that equipment can be protected in the case of another flood insurers and government funds won’t cover the cost of fitting I have the feeling that people could forget about the floods too early,” says Charlotte Burggraf an employee of the district administration of Ahrweiler they’ll say: ‘The floods won’t come again.’ But they will You need to be getting protection and you need early-warning systems People may forget how dramatic the events of 2021 really were.” The devastation in Schuld Photograph: Sascha Steinbach/EPAAcross the Ahr without flood mitigation measures in place The flood of 14 July was particularly catastrophic for multiple reasons The authorities failed to issue warnings and mandatory evacuations until it was too late The Ahr had not flooded with significant loss of life for more than 100 years And their homes had been built in places that never should have been inhabited The Romans knew to build away from the Ahr; the medieval church fathers The churches in Altenahr and Dernau did not flood there were flood-retention areas around the Ahr Houses were built up stone steps from the road Meike says: “I think, in the past, people were more careful about where they built. Why have we forgotten? Are we so stupid or self‑confident that nothing can harm us? That is kind of crazy.” When they were studying wine cultivation at university, the Näkel sisters were taught to strip everything away and use only the evidence of their senses. They learned to smell things before tasting them. “Who, in our society, smells an apple before biting into the apple?” asks Meike. For years, the sisters had seen the climate crisis affect the way they worked. Their summers went from being wet to dry and hot. There were weeks without rain, something that would have been impossible in the past. Rather than removing the leaves from the vine to keep the grapes dry and healthy, now the sisters left them, to cast a shadow. The harvest moved forward a month, from October to September. After the July 2021 floods, they knew that climate breakdown would make these extreme weather events more likely. “My father always said: ‘We cannot change the weather,’” says Meike. “We have to work with it.” They drive me to their vineyard, up twisting roads. The vines tumble away from us down the hillside. “Humans are just tiny against nature,” says Dörte, surveying her vines from the top of a hill. Werner taught them to plan long-term when planting their vines, to understand and respect nature. Their university lecturers taught them to listen to their senses. So, Dörte and Meike have decided to relocate their winery from the banks of the Ahr to the top of a hill. It took them a year and a half to persuade the farmer to sell the land. Their insurance will not cover the relocation, so they are putting up the money themselves. They hope to start construction this winter. something like the flood will happen again,” says Meike What I plan now must also stand in the next generation.” So After the flood, the sisters thought they had lost everything. But then the phone calls came: a barrel of wine had been found in this person’s garage, or in front of that building. It was a race against time to recover the 300kg barrels before the wine spoiled in the sun. In all, the sisters rescued nine barrels. They call these wines the Lost Barrels “We didn’t have our own machines; we didn’t even have a bucket,” says Dörte They didn’t want to avoid talking about the flood “We want to keep the memory alive,” says Meike It has been nearly two years since the floods and flood preparedness is not on the national agenda Some municipalities have implemented useful initiatives What is the overarching goal or objective for a flood-resilient Ahr valley in 20 years?” I walk along the main promenade that connects Ahrweiler and Bad-Neuenahr Recently rebuilt houses sparkle in the sun three-storey house that looks to be freshly repainted A child’s bedroom on the ground floor faces the river I can see a brightly patterned duvet and clowns hanging from a mobile Listen NowSaveShareDownloadA man rides his bicycle on streets destroyed by the flood in Bad Neuenahr weeks after heavy rain and floods caused major damage in the Ahr region.INA FASSBENDER/AFP via Getty ImagesResults from Germany’s national election are in The center-left Social Democrats narrowly beat outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel ’s center-right Union bloc in the race to determine who succeeds her at the helm of Europe’s biggest economy A number of issues dominated the campaign trail but climate change has remained at the top of the list this summer after devastating floods rocked the western part of the country We’ve been traveling through some of the worst affected areas finding out whether more resilient infrastructure could help limit the damage from catastrophic weather events like this one Drilling and construction are the sounds of resilience echoing through the town of Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler in western Germany which this summer burst during catastrophic floods Many described the devastation as the worst in a hundred years “Everything’s got to be replaced from top to bottom: Heating I’ve only got two tables and a mannequin left who owns a women’s clothing and accessories shop called Clara Shop owner Martina Kleinow outside of her destroyed business in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler in western Germany The town was ravaged by flooding over the summer (Photo credits: Victoria Craig / BBC)Victoria Craig / BBCThe light hardwood floors have been ripped up The molding and white-painted walls are gone Even the windows and her large shop sign above the door have been demolished now shoved in five-foot bags outside on the sidewalk “When I stood by the church the next morning at 8 a.m. Hundreds more were injured and some missing and German prosecutors have launched an investigation into whether residents were properly made aware of the risks and dangers of the storm focus is turning to ways to prevent storms like this from causing so much devastation Fullscreen SlideshowPrevious Slide4 of 4.css-1le8xi7-Slide-Slide > img{max-height:0px;width:auto;} unknown1 of 4.css-1le8xi7-Slide-Slide > img{max-height:0px;width:auto;} unknown2 of 4.css-1le8xi7-Slide-Slide > img{max-height:0px;width:auto;} unknownNext SlideThe way the town rebuilds could help And a project about 125 miles to the southeast in the city of Offenbach could provide a blueprint “We have large areas where the water can kind of rise and flood large areas And that’s very important that the water can expand,” said Ulrich Lemke the project manager for a regeneration project at Offenbach port that’s turned the former industrial site into one focused on living He explained that the site has been designed to allow the river to expand while keeping residential and work areas higher off the ground And then it’s also important to have a lot of green spaces and not to put the water directly back to the river,” he said Gerhard Hauber is a landscape architect who worked on the project he’s also a partner at the global engineering and architecture consultancy His company works on projects across the globe with a focus on finding ways for infrastructure to work with nature and cope with the increasing threats of climate change “You just need to shift the focus away from just building infrastructure that’s easy to build you just have to introduce it in the very beginning,” he said whatever shape the rebuilding efforts take she’s determined to come back stronger than ever “We hope of course – everyone in the region hopes – that if this kind of catastrophe is going to happen again that we really have time to protect our business,” she said Kleinow has vowed to stay in the place she loves and is eyeing a grand reopening late next year Sign up for the Marketplace newsletter to get the day’s biggest business stories straight to your inbox every weekday evening by FRANK JORDANS and BRAM JANSSEN | Associated Press Joerg Meyrer steels himself before making his way through the stinking piles of mud-caked debris that permeate this once-beautiful town in Germany's wine-growing Ahr valley Residents of Ahrweiler had been told to expect the Ahr River but Meyrer said few comprehended what that would mean The last serious flood in the area south of Bonn was more than a century ago Nearly 200 people were killed when heavy rainfall turned streams into raging torrents across parts of western Germany and Belgium and officials put the death toll in Ahrweiler county alone at 110 who expects that figure to rise significantly said the victims came from all walks of life Townspeople recounted grim cases of delayed grief as the realization began to sink in that those reported missing would not return Meyrer said he was called in when firefighters found the body of a woman he had known well "The husband knew his wife had been in the basement and he had to wait two days for her to be recovered," he said many residents are focusing on the cleanup before dealing with the longer task of rebuilding "We need to start over," said Paddy Amanatidis as she took a break from cleaning the rubble out of the restaurant "We fought our way through (the coronavirus pandemic) and the flood won't get us down either," she said adding that the solidarity shown by neighbors and friends had helped to boost spirits Meyrer believes that even for those lucky enough not to have lost loved ones the enormous impact of the disaster has not fully hit them "When the first lot (of debris) has been cleared and people have nothing to do then I think many will understand for the first time what they've lost and what that means," he said German officials have rejected allegations that they failed to properly warn people of the severity of the floods but conceded that more lessons can be learned from the disaster Experts say global warming may make such floods even more frequent Mayor Helmut Lussi said the scars would last a long time "Our lives changed from one day to the next," he told German Chancellor Merkel Meyrer says the daunting task will require the help of clergy from across the town and beyond authorities also must figure out where to bury them While the freshly renovated Gothic walls of the 13th century St Lawrence Church remained miraculously untouched by the flooding a sympathetic ear and a shoulder to cry on saying that prayer hasn't come easily in the days since the disaster struck somehow you have to take over now.' That's got to be good enough," he added That's the situation three weeks after the flood in the town of Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler Aid workers in the Ahr Valley are busy everywhere The Martin-Luther-Kirche has also had a hard time The pastors of the Protestant community of Bad Neuenahr are doing all they can to help people But it's immediately clear that something has happened here Parts of the bank have been swept away; branches This is the result of the high water in mid-July It is evident that the water came far over the banks The road beside the Ahr is still full of brown mud ("Schlamm" in German) On the side of the road where the houses are there is an unprecedented amount of rubbish with pieces of stone and wood and a broken chair and a watering can Or maybe not: a man comes out of his house with a wheelbarrow full of rubbish and dumps it on the big pile a cleaning truck is discharging mud from a nearby flat into the Ahr At the intersection of Georg-Kreuzberg Strasse and Telegrafenstrasse Right at the crossing stands the Martin-Luther-Kirche in front of which is a broken-down grey Audi covered with mud there is a small truck from the organ builder Van Vulpen from the Dutch city of Utrecht Three employees of the company are disassembling and loading the central organ of the church "Our company does the maintenance here," says Leo Hardeman "The organ was high up on the gallery and remained undamaged We take the interior to the Netherlands and store it there until it can be rebuilt There is so much to be done in the church; it would cause too much dust." It is not known when the organ will be reinstalled In the church building stands concert organist Christoph Anselm Noll His wife is the permanent organist of this building you can see that the water here has been at the height of one and a half meters Noll explains that the main organ is one of the few parts of the church that has remained undamaged "The 2014 chest organ floated in the water and is unusable The concert grand piano was in the water and can no longer be used When I opened the door of the church on Friday morning after the flood and looked inside there was an organ concert in the Gemeindehaus I went to this church with my wife to get some things from the cellar and brought them upstairs I don't want to think what would have happened if we had still been there then the community building where the Evangelische Kirche organises activities They have just given an air dryer to a young couple from the area "We have received four hundred of these devices from the national Protestant Church's Emergency Relief Deaconry," says Eumann There will be another shipment of about four hundred dryers." "We do what we can," she continues In the Ahr Valley in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate 31 Roman Catholic churches and 16 minister's houses have been more or less severely affected by the flooding of the Ahr a large part of the population is Roman Catholic It will become clear whether any churches have been irreparably damaged in the coming weeks and what is needed to rebuild them The extent of the material damage is still unknown This is partly done by pastors who go out into the streets and are approachable an online counselling centre has been set up for flood victims a therapeutic children's group was started The diocese wants to ensure medium- and long-term pastoral care more than 100 professionals have expressed their willingness to support pastoral care in the region in the coming weeks A glass door with the word "Secretariat" is loose in a dirty room The Schlamm is in thick splotches on the sink Someone has painted a horse's head out of it and a heart and a cross on the opposite corridor wall Eumann says that the water came so fast that she did not save the church's archives "At 11 o'clock on that Wednesday evening The van from the Gemeindehaus was floating away in the water." She is happy with the help that came from all over Germany there were twenty to thirty volunteers ready to help But there is still so much to be done." The church received goods and money to distribute "The money we give to people to provide for their basic needs Bernd Bazin expects the number of people with mental health problems to increase soon who works in the Bad Neuenahr Evangelical Church community as a flood counsellor came to the Gemeindehaus at Eumann's request "The moment of genuine pastoral care is still to come The worst thing is the loss of things with emotional value such as old photographs and memories of loved ones." he and the other congregation pastors went out into the streets and houses to talk to people "We are still in the chaos mood," he says "That means that there is still no complete picture People were still being discovered until recently who speaks of the greatest catastrophe in Germany after the Second World War There are also victims in his congregation he does not want to talk about that because it "makes people despondent." The pastor mentions three stories that have given him hope One of them was of a man who gave a testimony during the service in the Friedenskirche on the first Sunday after the disaster "The man tearfully told us that on that night he was washed down into the cellar with the water he remained conscious and managed to work his way up He could also have chosen to clean his house first." took in two families who no longer had a home That is a sign of Christian love for the neighbour." someone who was part of the trumpet choir in this congregation "He is working as a volunteer to build up an aid station on the other side of the Ahr where there were no facilities at all due to the broken bridges People can get food and appliances from him and the other volunteers He puts this work before any job he might get." the German Christian news service Idea reported how Gabriel Pluss (18) from Bad Münstereifel was saved in the nick of time the car he was travelling could not continue on its way because the entire road was filled with water from the river Erft He walked the last hundred metres to his house in Bad Münstereifel by the side of the road through the water He reached his house and then had to cross the swirling water on the road He was swept away by the water when he took the first step The three men pulled with all their might and managed to hold on to the cable they were able to pull Gabriel onto dry land Later the young man said that at that moment "I thank God that I am still alive," said Gabriel This article was published previously in the Dutch Reformatorisch Dagblad on August 10th The expected tariff cost is significantly lower than the $4 billion to $5 billion crosstown rival General Motors estimates which Ford attributes to its higher mix of U.S.-built vehicles As the floodwaters started to recede rescue workers are racing to find survivors as the devastation left by flooding in western Germany and Belgium is starting to become clear amid a rising death toll that reached at least 183 with many still missing Around 156 people died in Germany in what is the country’s worst natural disaster in more than half a century Around 110 of those deaths took place in the Ahrweiler district south of Cologne You don’t recognize the scenery,” Michael Lang the owner of a wine shop in the town of Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler in Ahrweiler “The weather is highly political; there is hardly any nonpolitical weather anymore especially not during an election campaign.” Amid all the tragedy, a senior German politician came under fire after he was caught on camera joking with colleagues as Steinmeier expressed sympathy for the victims “Laschet laughs while the country cries,” the newspaper Bild said on its website in reference to Armin Laschet who is the conservative candidate to succeed Merkel Experts have said this type of disaster is likely to start becoming more frequent due to climate change Some parts of western Europe “received up to two months of rainfall in the space of two days,” World Meteorological Organization spokesperson Clare Nullis said Although it’s too soon to blame it on warming the climate crisis has been “increasing the frequency of extreme events while many single events have been shown to be made worse by global warming,” Nullis added The scars are still visible a year on in valley which suffered more than half the deaths from the flooding disaster that hit Europe on 14 and 15 July 2021 The dramatic floods of 14 and 15 July 2021 killed more than 220 people in Europe, leaving a trail of destruction in Germany and Belgium Western Germany was worst-hit by the flooding The state of Rhineland-Palatinate registered 49 deaths while North Rhine-Westphalia said 135 were killed The total cost of the damage in Germany is estimated to be more than €30bn (£25bn) residents are still waiting for the return of normal life a year after the devastation of deadly flash flooding Debris from last year’s floods still lies on a destroyed railway line in the village of Dernau in the Ahr valley Photograph: Michael Probst/APAbout 18,000 inhabitants were affected by the disaster in this once picturesque town in western Germany known for its thermal baths The anniversary of the night of 14 July will be marked on Thursday with a visit by the German chancellor will be able to show Scholz roads cleared of the muck and debris strewn by the floodwaters that submerged Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler Photographs: Christof Stache and Ina Fassbender / AFP / GettyBut a return to the way things were “will still take time” with rebuilding very much a work in progress temporary roads that make life possible,” he says A damaged clock from last year’s floods hangs on a wall in the village of Schuld in July 2022 Photograph: Michael Probst/APNone of the 18 bridges that used to cross the Ahr river is functional yet with three temporary crossings installed in their place from the collapsed banks by the roadside to the high-water mark on many of the buildings While officials may want to rebuild things as quickly as possible they are also under pressure to make sure residents are protected from future floods “we are still living in the same dangerous situation as a year ago” This puts residents in a state of anxiety any time bad weather is forecast Photographs: Christof Stache and Ina Fassbender / AFP / GettyIn Germany The majority of the fatalities were in the Ahr valley which winds along 25 miles (40km) to where the river joins the Rhine to the south of Bonn A flood damaged bicycle path that goes through a tunnel near the village of Laach in July 2022 Photograph: Michael Probst/APOrthen is dismayed that protective measures to keep residents safe from future floods are subject to interminable bureaucratic discussions the houses that have been destroyed are not permitted to be rebuilt while those that were damaged can be repaired a municipality in the district of Ahrweiler Photographs: Christof Stache and Ina Fassbender / AFP / GettyMoreover town officials face a mountain of paperwork with Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler expected to submit 1,400 requests for reconstruction projects by the end of June 2023.“We won’t be able to,” Orthen says After a year of living in a “state of emergency” the mayor sees “disenchantment” and a “feeling of powerlessness” growing among his residents More than 2,000 people have left the town in the last year A flood damaged bridge over the Ahr river at the village of Rech in July 2022 Photograph: Michael Probst/APIn Rhineland-Palatinate only €500m in aid have been handed out of the total €15bn set aside The slow progress is an “affront to those affected” according to conservative state legislator Horst Gies In the neighbouring state of North Rhine-Westphalia €1.6bn in government support has been approved for use Photograph: Ina Fassbender / AFP / GettyIn the town of Sinzig about 9.3 miles from Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler candles have been lit in front of a former care home is still looking for a location to open a new facility “Our discussions with the mayor’s office and the local administration still haven’t produced anything,” says Ulrich van Bebber Frustration is building among those trying to rebuild their lives as promised help is slow to arrive “We want to exist in the eyes of Germany,” says Iris Münn-Buschow The ground floor of her home is still in the middle of repair works Damage from last year’s flood is still visible in the village of Ahrbrück Photograph: Michael Probst/AP“We have the impression everything else that goes on in the world is more important than what happens here in Germany,” Münn-Buschow says “Nobody has forgotten the Ahr valley and the other regions,” the minister president of Rhineland-Palatinate state stressing the extent of the work still left to do diggers and volunteers try to clear mud and ruined belongings from wrecked homes and businesses A brown line one and a half metres high on the kitchen wall marks where the waters reached when Christian Ulrich’s house was inundated The electrician stands amid the mud-splattered walls and his voice breaks as he recalls how he had barely enough time after the warning came to reach the cellar to get food and water and send his mother up the stairs He had just managed to let in the neighbours who had banged on the door for help when there was an “almighty crash – like an explosion” as a huge wave of water rolled in from the back and front of the house so strong it pushed out the front door and many of the windows Rubbish and destroyed furnishings are piled up in front of the old city wall Eight days on thanks to a man on a mechanical digger outside on Bachemer Strasse who has spent the last few days on the street clearing the rubble from Ulrich’s family home and others but he says the smelly heap is now only a fraction of the height it was But we are saddened that there has so far been very little official help,” he says where Ulrich’s mother is trying to recover from the trauma Volunteers carry mud from a physiotherapy practice into the street via bucket chain while a helper takes a break who is operating the digger – lent by a landscaping company – with an efficient calm His son Jonas is in an adjacent street doing the same knowing we had skills they might need,” says the self-employed builder A similar scenario is playing out in thousands of homes across this spa town in Rhineland-Palatinate state – all of which are without running water or gas – and in turn in scores of towns and villages across the region A further 766 were injured and 155 people remain missing lines of mud-coated volunteers scoop the gunge from cellars and ground floors in buckets and pass them on The last in the chain dumps the mud in the street Many punctuate the work with a joke or a song are clearing the cellar of a physiotherapy practice on Ahrhutstrasse The youngest helper spotted is seven-year-old Eno who alongside many others is pushing a shovel into the thick sticky grey mud which has to be watered down to stop it from clogging the drains Hartmut Schönhöfer is busy stripping the plaster from the walls of the picturesque 18th-century Marktbrunnen (market fountain) pub had spent the best part of lockdown painstaking renovating Maike Sperlich helps to load rubbish from the houses into containers and trucks “When the waters came it was like pinball as it seemed to come from all over the place and really fast,” he says “None of us died – for that we’re grateful,” he adds “But our tragedy is that we had put €300,000 net (£256,000) into the renovation and we’ll need another €150,000-€200,000 to restore it now But we have no elemental damage insurance [to cover storms and severe weather] It was just not available.” The story is repeated in homes and businesses across the town Above: A helper removes mud from a residential building At Dr von Ehrenwall’s clinic for psychiatry and neurology delegates jobs to staff who have gathered to help with the cleanup About 150 patients had to be moved to the top floors where they stayed the night before being evacuated to a makeshift shelter in a Haribo sweet factory on a strolling promenade popular with rich weekenders from Frankfurt the Förtsches are sorting through the remains of their antique shop take this as a souvenir,” Udo Förtsch half jokes picking up a mud-smeared Marc Chagall print His wife Uschi washes down some brass statues and a glass vase and places them in a plastic box But more or less all the rest of their €150,000 of stock is destroyed Above and right: a helper distributes home-baked cake Far right: Helpers are treated to free bratwursts and chips They are not insured either “We planned to retire in a couple of years A fellow shop owner comes to tell them that their landlord’s 18-year-old daughter was drowned as she tried to get the car out of the garage as the waters came “We are the lucky ones,” Uschi Förtsch says the curtains of the five-star Steigenberger hotel flap in the wind The windows were smashed by the force of the water their frames buckling along with the pipes and lamp-posts outside cutlery and champagne buckets are scattered across the floor A Peugeot has been flung against the hotel terrace “It’s like Bosnia after the war,” says Tim from a Gummersbach firm specialising in construction cleanups who has just arrived and is surveying the scene from the banks of the brown and his helper Johannes Ehmer shovel mud from his grandfather’s grave Above: destroyed and silted graves in the cemetery In the Ahrweiler district a non-stop column of trucks and tractors one of four gates in the old town’s ancient wall and queue up to tip seemingly unending loads of the mud-drenched contents of homes and businesses – washing machines A digger operator is tasked with compressing the mound as much as possible and loading it onto trucks which are transporting it to incinerators across Germany and the Netherlands Spotting a red carpet from a hotel or restaurant in the waste he picks it up in the teeth of his excavator bucket and waves it at his fellow workers offering a brief moment of levity amid the misery The efficiency of the operation is fine-tuned to the extent that lorry maintenance engineers are on hand to offer repairs for everything from tyre punctures to loose screws The Auths have driven their “Brat King” (Grill King) catering truck the 160 miles from Fulda stocked with thousands of sausages and other donations from butchers tuck into a currywurst and chips as they take a break from cleaning up Lily recalls leaving work early after a flood warning came late on the night of Wednesday 14 July and driving on the bridge over the river Ahr towards home “I swear I could feel it shifting,” she says Several cars were on it when it subsequently collapsed “I think if I’d been 15 minutes later I might have been swept away.” She points to the bridge An excavator trying to clear the rubble around it has just toppled over into the fast-flowing water though luckily the fire brigade managed to drive the vehicles out in time Cars and a van are tossed among broken gravestones and there is hardly a blade of grass in sight Benjamin Monschau tends to the grave of his grandfather Erich he’s trying to free the rest from the mass of sticky mud “I didn’t want to let my grandmother see it like this,” he says Masks are worn here primarily to protect from mud A muddy handprint has become a hallmark of the cleanup effort Elisabeth Parschau has placed two of hers on the front of her boyfriend’s T-shirt and to hope it keeps coming – the town will need a lot of help in the coming months,” she says She is sitting playing her piano flanked by two water tanks delivered earlier by the army outside their house with its bucolic courtyard laced with grapevines Elisabeth Parschaun plays her ruined piano in the street But before it’s carted away with the rest of the debris she has chalked the invitation “Spiel mich” – play me – on it Residents and rescue workers in need of a respite have been readily taking up the offer Destruction by the flood of 2021: View of Rosenkranz Church and the casino in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler Climate research agrees that climate change will bring more heat Cities and municipalities are therefore looking for suitable countermeasures and one project seems particularly promising: "water-sensitive cities" are to provide some relief in the future The idea behind it is that precipitation is no longer discharged directly into the sewage system solutions are being sought on how to let the rainwater seep away This would significantly reduce the discharge of rainwater into the sewage system and at the same time make the rainwater that accumulates in built-up areas available for ecosystems and for cooling the climate the potential damage resulting from heavy rainfall is to be minimised The city of Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler is also looking into the ideas of water-sensitive urban planning the administration informed us that there is interest in implementing appropriate measures - also in the context of reconstruction after the flood Staff members are already working on a climate adaptation concept in which ideas from the field of "water-sensitive urban planning" are also to be brought to bear this will include implementing the model of a sponge city which was already presented to the city council at the end of last year as a measure of the immediate strategy "inner cities of the future" The municipal committees have already decided on rainwater retention in the form of infiltration trenches in connection with tree planting whereby surface water from the traffic routes will be collected and used for the permanent irrigation of the trees Ahrstrasse and part of Kreuzstrasse in the Bad Neuenahr district "As with many other measures of water-sensitive urban planning the financing of the project is the greatest challenge to be overcome," writes the city administration Aspects of water-sensitive reconstruction are taken into account in urban planning in last year’s "Statutes for the Greening of Structural Facilities" these bylaws regulate the greening of roofs facades and covered parking spaces with the aim of compensating for the sealing of surfaces by building development as far as possible with compensatory surfaces and creating possibilities for retaining water that the flat roofs of all new buildings of 50 square metres or more and also sloping roofs are to be greened according to different specifications Windowless facades of commercially or industrially used buildings must also be greened from a facade area of 50 square metres drainage concepts are developed on a case-by-case basis in the respective development plan procedures in each case with the aim of achieving the greatest possible flood protection and retaining rainwater in a decentralised manner "This ranges from retention basins in the building areas to seepage on the respective properties to collection and recycling in cisterns as well as the targeted planning of green areas for seepage and retention." However all these measures must be "individually assessed and planned in each case" and depend on the respective planning contents "Water-sensitive cities have great potential for successful municipal climate change adaptation," agrees Katrin Eder Energy and Mobility of Rhineland-Palatinate "Protecting the climate and adapting to the consequences of climate change are among the great challenges of our time The effects of increasing drought and more frequent heavy rainfall events are particularly noticeable in our municipalities." (Original text: Niklas Schröder; Translation: Jean Lennox) The Rhineland-Palatinate Centre for Environmental Education together with the federal state’s Association of Municipalities and Towns the Association of Towns and Cities and the Competence Centre for Climate Change Impacts will be providing information about a web seminar series entitled "The Water-Sensitive City" until October The lecture series is aimed in particular at representatives of municipalities there will be information on the necessity of a sustainable use of the resource water but also on the climate relevance of a water-sensitive city and on the chances of good municipal climate communication Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker At least 110 people have died in devastating floods across parts of western Germany and Belgium Search and rescue operations are continuing with hundreds still unaccounted for Photograph: Christof Stache/AFP/Getty Images Government bunker documentation centreThe former government bunker in the Ahr valley opens its nuclear bomb-proof gates as a museum.Parts of the complex are open to visitors inviting young and old from all over the world.This is both a challenge and a responsibility for the "Alt-Ahrweiler" local history association which is responsible for the documentation site as the employees accompany the visitors on their 1.5-hour guided tour of the bunker through an underground world which until recently was subject to strict secrecy OPENING HOURS for individual visitors In January/February/March there is a guided tour on Saturdays and Sundays at 12.00 p.m. (with registration). regierungsbunker@alt-ahrweiler.de 23 Saturday and Sunday as well as on public holidays (Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia) From 10:00 a.m You can get an accompanying booklet in English at the cash desk Groups are asked to book their guided tour via the Ahr Valley Tourism Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler Tel.: 02641/917165 or register via regierungsbunker@alt-ahrweiler.de The group size is currently a maximum of 25 people Group tours are possible from Tuesday to Sunday Essential digital access to quality FT journalism on any device Complete digital access to quality FT journalism with expert analysis from industry leaders Complete digital access to quality analysis and expert insights complemented with our award-winning Weekend Print edition Terms & Conditions apply Discover all the plans currently available in your country Digital access for organisations. Includes exclusive features and content. See why over a million readers pay to read the Financial Times. ShareGet SBS News daily and direct to your InboxSign up now for the latest news from Australia and around the world direct to your inbox.Your email address *Morning (Mon–Fri) Today’s PaperEurope|The Extent of Flooding in the Hardest-Hit Areas of Europehttps://nyti.ms/3iAmGW7Share full articleAdvertisement By Weiyi CaiTaylor JohnstonEleanor Lutz and Tim WallaceJuly 17 Some towns that reported damage from flooding Videos on social media showed streets filled with knee-high water and residents buried in landslides Hundreds of calls were made to firefighters for help with flooding forcing people to evacuate and destroying a bridge Several houses and part of a historic castle collapsed Fears that a major dam might break led to evacuations on Thursday Some people returned Friday as the water receded Roads were blocked by fallen trees and building debris Authorities said that at least 50 people had died and 1,300 were missing forcing evacuations and destroying a bridge Fears that a major dam might break led to evacuations Videos showed residents buried in landslides Hundreds of calls were made to firefighters for help Flash floods filled streets and tore apart buildings Petra Ahrweiler now leads the research institution for technology assessment in Rhineland-Palatinate – Since 27 March Petra Ahrweiler has been the new Director of the Europäische Akademie Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler GmbH The Academy’s Partners’ Assembly – the Federal German state of Rhineland-Palatinate and the German Aerospace Center – appointed the Professor for Technology and Innovation Assessment last Wednesday Ahrweiler also holds a professorship for Sociology at Mainz University Her main research interests are innovation networks social network analysis and policy research Ahrweiler was Professor of Innovation and Technology Management at the Michael Smurfit School of Business of University College Dublin and Director of UCD’s Innovation Research Unit IRU she belonged to the external faculty of the Engineering Systems Division at the Massachussetts Institute of Technology (MIT) journalism and political science at the University of Hamburg finishing with her PhD in the area of science and technology studies at the Free University Berlin where she was supported by the German National Merit Foundation Since her habilitation thesis at the University of Bielefeld on social simulation of innovation processes she worked as a Heisenberg Fellow of the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG) and as a Professor of Economic Sociology at the University of Hamburg where she built up a new research programme on innovation research The researcher has long experience as principal investigator and co-ordinator of international projects on innovation networks for example the EU-projects on “Simulating Self-Organizing Innovation Networks (SEIN)” or “Network Models Ahrweiler holds various research awards and is member of a number of advisory boards in both governmental and academic organisations dateFormat['de_DE'])+ ' - '+item['institution']+' Europäische Akademie zur Erforschung von Folgen wissenschaftlich-technischer Entwicklungen Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler GmbH Weitere Pressemitteilungen dieser Einrichtung Bäume und Schrott an einer Brücke über der Ahr in Altenahr (Luftaufnahme mit einer Drohne) Tausende Häuser im Ahrtal wurden bei der Sturzflut zerstört oder beschädigt picture alliance/dpa/ Boris RoesKnapp zwölf Monate sind seit der Flut im Ahrtal vergangen Wir haben für Sie Daten und Fakten der Auswirkungen der Flutkatastrophe gesammelt und auf einer interaktiven Karte dargestellt Die knapp 60.000 Bewohner des Ahrtals traf es bei der Jahrhundertflut hart: 7154 zerstörte Häuser 490 davon wurden schwer- und 175 komplett zerstört Hoffnungen und Träume versanken in den Fluten Die Landesbehörde ADD geht von 42 000 Flut-Betroffenen aus die Schäden sollen sich auf rund 15 Milliarden Euro belaufen Die Stadt Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler traf es in der Katastrophe besonders stark: 5000 Immobilien in Bad Neuenahr Mehr als die Hälfte der 134 Toten im Ahrtal waren hier zu beklagen Etwa 800 Menschen wurden bei der Flutkatastrophe verletzt Als Folgen der Flut und ihrer Verwüstungen gab es zudem mehrere Suizide Die schleppende Auszahlung des Geldes und komplizierte Anträge verzögerten den Wiederaufbau des im Juli 2021 überfluteten Tals Melden Sie sich jetzt mit Ihrem bestehenden Account an oder testen Sie unser digitales Abo mit Zugang zu allen Artikeln Starten Sie mit unserem kurzen Nachrichten-Newsletter in den Tag Erhalten Sie zudem freitags den US-Sonderletter "Was jetzt America?" sowie das digitale Magazin ZEIT am Wochenende Between the Rosenkranz church and the casino the Kurgarten bridge was torn away The 2023 state horticultural show in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler is cancelled The decision to cancel was previously made by the supervisory board of the state horticultural show company "The flood disaster has left unimaginable devastation throughout the Ahr Valley playgrounds and other public and private facilities is an absolute priority and will require all financial and human resources on site in the coming years," said Mayor and Chairman of the Supervisory Board Guido Orthen The city announced that already purchased tickets will be refunded The organisers will provide information on the exact procedure in the coming weeks The flood disaster caused massive damage in the entire Ahr valley also the area of the national horticultural show was destroyed the national horticultural show should have taken place in 2022 anyway was however postponed due to delays with building measures to a year later Rückbau der B 266 für mehr Hochwasserschutz – so lautet der Vorschlag einer Flut-Arbeitsgruppe in Heimersheim Wo andernorts an der Ahr nach der Flutkatastrophe vieles bemängelt und kritisiert wurde ist man in Heimersheim einen Schritt weiter Im Ort wurden vier Arbeitsgruppen eingerichtet die sich nicht nur mit den Erkenntnissen aus der Flut und möglichen neuen Konzepten befassen sondern den Entscheidern auch konkrete Ideen vorlegen Eine der Forderungen lautet: Rückbau der B 266 bei Heimersheim auf zwei Spuren gab auch Abteilungsleiter Alfred Bach von der Stadtverwaltung Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler zu einzelnen Ideen zu wie auch viele der 150 Besucher der jüngsten Ortsbeiratssitzung voll des Lobes über den Vortrag von Ingenieur Robert Füllmann Der trug die Arbeit einer Arbeitsgruppe mit den Themen „B 266 Brücken und Bahnhof“ vor und kam zunächst zum Ergebnis dass der Bereich der Ahr in Höhe des Heimersheimer Bahnhofs wie ein Flaschenhals wirkt Durch den vierspurigen Bau der B 266 als Umgehung wurde es für die Ahr noch enger auf maximal 30 Metern Breite ließe diese ein Durchflussvolumen von 450 Kubikmetern Wasser in der Sekunde zu Bei einem Rückbau auf zwei Spuren vergrößere sich der Platz der Ahr Bei der Flut im Jahr 1910 mit 500 Kubikmetern hätte das gereicht 2021 und 1804 aber wurden 1200 Kubikmeter errechnet Aber eines der Ergebnisse sollte auch sein „große“ Hochwasser zu „mittleren“ zu machen Auf alle Fälle würden so 23.000 Quadratmeter neue Überflutungszone gewonnen wie eine bereits 2018 in Heimersheim präsentierte Simulation bei Starkregen oder Hochwasser Ehlingen wie eine Badewanne volllaufe müsse nun endlich kurzfristig durch die Untertunnelung der B 266 mit Anschluss an den Ahr-Radweg geändert werden Als mittelfristig umsetzbare Lösung stellte Füllmann dann eine völlig neue Idee der Zuwegung zum Heimersheimer Bahnhof vor nämlich einen Kreisel an der jetzigen B 266-Ausfahrt Heimersheim So kann der Verkehr aus beiden Richtungen gelenkt werden Für Radfahrer und Fußgänger solle parallel zur Kloster-Prüm-Straße eine zusätzliche Brücke errichtet werden zum anderen zum Bahnhof Heimersheim führt und diesen zwischen Gleisen und Ahrverlauf erreicht Mit dem Bau könnte der Bahnhof zudem barrierefrei werden Der Weg soll ebenfalls an den Ahr-Fernradweg anknüpfen Wege für Fahrzeuge sind so von Rad- und Fußweg komplett abgekoppelt nur bei Hochwasser müsse man auf die bisherigen Wege zurückgreifen Und neben einem Tunnel unter der B 266 bei Ehlingen solle ein solcher mitsamt Fluttoren auch in Höhe der Göppinger Straße errichtet werden So würde Ehlingen und Heimersheim auch wieder ein Zugang zur Ahr ermöglicht der mit Bau der neuen B 266 nicht mehr vorhanden war Nicht berücksichtigt wurde in den Überlegungen eine mögliche Verlegung des Bahn-Haltepunktes Heimersheim in Richtung Lohrsdorf Auch die seit Jahrzehnten geplante Lohrsdorfer Umgehung in deren Umsetzung vor der Flut Bewegung gekommen war das vorgestellte Ergebnis der Stadt für die Entscheidung in ihren Gremien zu präsentieren dass man es zunächst im Hinblick auf die Machbarkeit mit den verantwortlichen Institutionen für den Wiederaufbau von Straßen wurde dem Beschlussvorschlag wohlwollend hinzugefügt.