The floods that lasted several days over Whitsun also caused extensive damage in the Saarpfalz district. This is visible to everyone, for example in the European Cultural Park in Reinheim, where it has not yet been possible to return to everyday operations. Even though flooding occurred with a time lag and was more localised, the coordination of supra-local tasks by the civil protection staff of the Lower Civil Protection Authority in the Saarpfalz district was necessary.
On Friday morning, district fire inspector Uwe Wagner, Head of Civil Protection, convened the civil protection team in the command centre of the Lower Civil Protection Authority's situation centre. It was still only a matter of keeping an eye on the water levels. However, the scenarios of heavy and continuous rainfall increasingly exacerbated the flooding situation, so that the disaster management team began its work on the same day and with successive staff increases. While the focus on Friday was on overflowing retention basins and rapidly rising smaller tributaries of the Blies, from Saturday onwards it was the Blies itself that reached levels in places that even led to a flood of the century, for example in Reinheim. In fact, almost all of the Blies' tributaries reached record levels. Not forgetting the flooding of Blieskastel's old town centre after a pump system in the sewerage system failed. The main areas of intervention were therefore in Blieskastel (town centre, Altheim, Lautzkirchen), in Gersheim (town centre, Reinheim, Walsheim, Peppenkum), in Homburg (Kirrberg, Jägersburg) and in the municipality of Mandelbachtal (Bliesmengen-Bolchen, Ormesheim). In Limbach, Bliesstraße, Hauptstraße and Bahnhofstraße were severely affected.
By midday on Tuesday after Whitsun, a total of over 50 people were involved in the staff work to deal with the severe weather situation: the specialist advisors from the aid organisations THW, DRK and Malteser with their staff as well as the staff functionaries from the S1 to S6 departments, personnel from municipal fire brigades and plant fire brigades, from the Bundeswehr (district liaison command), from the telecommunications train, not least employees from the district office and two external helpers. The list of tasks was long. They included Monitoring the water levels, obtaining situation reports from the municipalities and passing them on to the state coordination group, passing on information from the federal and state governments, requesting and coordinating external forces (for example THW) and coordinating forces from district fire services and fire services from other districts, providing fuel and mobile filling stations, organising additional boats, coordinating and supporting requests for assistance from other districts and municipalities (Regionalverband, Contwig), procurement of sand and empty bags, provision of filled sandbags, support during the evacuation of a nursing home in Gersheim, clarification of the admission of patients in the event of the possible evacuation of other nursing homes, preparation of accommodation for external helpers, provision of drinks, barrier barges, mobile toilets and containers for waste disposal, among other things.
The list is not exhaustive, but it gives a good overview of the demands placed on the emergency response team. "It was also important that the citizens' hotline was manned until midday on Sunday. It was not excessively busy, as communication with citizens was very well covered by the local authorities themselves. Nevertheless, some people sought contact and we were able to help them and sometimes reassure them. I would also like to mention the organisation of the catering for the emergency services, which was partly organised by the medical units via the staff," reports Uwe Wagner, who, like many others, got very little sleep over the Whitsun days. Special incidents included the deployment of the Westerwald and Taunus water rescue teams to Einöd to rescue calves and the report of two missing persons - a woman and a small child - in the airport area, both of whom were quickly found. One remarkable figure should also be mentioned: Over 30000 sandbags were already filled and delivered to the municipalities from Thursday until the situation calmed down. The entire sandbag logistics were therefore also the responsibility of the staff.
District Administrator Dr Theophil Gallo sums up: "For me, it was a matter of course that I did not go on holiday on the Saturday before Whitsun, but stayed in the district and, in addition to the meetings in the situation centre, was always on the move in the district and to the critical points. The staff work went very well. We were able to fulfil the needs that were brought to us by the local authorities and the logistics were right. I would like to express my sincere thanks to everyone who was involved in this staff work. There were also numerous volunteers whose expertise we could not and cannot do without. Once again, we have gained experience that we need to learn from and apply to further operations of this kind. This includes, for example, bringing relief supplies such as sandbags or fuel to the site at an early stage, when the first concrete warnings of an emergency are issued, so that these goods are already available on site during a critical period and do not have to be transported there when needed. If roads have to be closed at short notice due to flooding, landslides or other reasons, deliveries simply can no longer get to their destination quickly or only via detours that cost time. This can and must be avoided by taking early action. Overall, I have seen remarkable cooperation between the units in the municipalities and the district's disaster management team, as well as a great willingness to help on the part of the population. That makes me very proud and I am grateful for it. Of course, it would be ideal if one or two people could decide to work permanently and regularly in one of the aid organisations, which would further relieve the burden on volunteers and, of course, strengthen the organisations."