At the most recent district council meeting, District Administrator Dr Theophil Gallo expressed his thanks to the members of the Saarpfalz district's disaster control team during the difficult flood situation at Whitsun 2024.
"The situation was a major challenge for everyone involved. This made the effective and comprehensive management of the relief measures by the staff all the more important. The willingness to volunteer to serve the public is not a matter of course and should therefore be recognised all the more. The commitment of each individual contributed to the fact that we were able to successfully cope with this emergency situation, but nevertheless: "We got off lightly and we must continue to work on optimisation and not lull ourselves into a sense of security," said the District Administrator.
80 mainly volunteer helpers were deployed in shifts at the command centre in the Lower Disaster Control Authority's Situation Centre under the direction of Uwe Wagner, Head of Civil Protection, from Friday morning, 17 May, until Tuesday lunchtime, 21 May. They included specialist advisors from the THW, DRK and Malteser aid organisations and their staff, as well as the staff functionaries from departments S1 to S6, personnel from municipal fire brigades and plant fire brigades, from the German Armed Forces (district liaison command), from the telecommunications platoon and, last but not least, employees from the district office and two external helpers. The staff's tasks included constantly monitoring the water levels, sending warning messages via the warning apps, setting up and manning a citizens' telephone, coordinating and allocating the supply of sandbags, planning and preparing the evacuation of retirement homes in good time, providing vehicles and materials from support companies and coordinating requests for help from other districts and municipalities outside the district.
During this time, District Administrator Dr Gallo repeatedly travelled around the district and to the critical points in person. He was pleased with the well-functioning cooperation between the units in the local authorities and the disaster control team, as well as the great spontaneous willingness of the population to help. However, it has not only been a concern of his since then to promote permanent and regular participation in the aid organisations. "We need to strengthen the organisations and thus relieve the burden on volunteers in order to be able to deal with future emergencies safely. The effective management of the deployment of spontaneous aid workers is an additional task. The burden on members of the emergency services will be eased even more if these helpers have a certain amount of 'basic training' and can therefore be deployed more flexibly. This would be particularly advantageous for longer-lasting or more difficult situations. We must prepare ourselves and be prepared for such situations," emphasised the district administrator to the members of the district council and the invited guests, whom he thanked warmly on behalf of the Saarpfalz district with a certificate and a gift.
Even though not all of the emergency services were able to attend the district council meeting, it was ensured that both the certificate and the gift reached the recipients.