Bernd Welsch and his family on the Welsch dairy farm in Wachtberg, NRW

The Ahr Valley was flooded in July 2021. We live about ten minutes away by car and it’s an area I have known since I was little, we always went hiking there when I was a kid. Last summer, when the floods came, my son got into our tugboat with some of our colleagues and together they tried to clear roads that were blocked by masses of debris, mud, and all manner of objects. I was on duty at the fire department nearby and we were constantly pumping out cellars and cleaning up. So many people we saw lost everything they had built during their lives, from one day to the next. I was really touched and impressed by the way people pulled together, they were so quick to lend a hand. At times, we were unable to drive to the Ahr valley because the roads were congested with all the volunteers coming to help. More people were driving into the valley than out of it. Looking back on 2022 that was full of earth-shattering events, I was always gladdened by how people came together and acted as a team when disaster struck the valley. If we can maintain even just a bit of that natural impulse to help, we will manage to get through this crisis as well. We must take action, support each other materially and financially, and keep our doors open. I don’t think I would feel so confident if I hadn’t seen how people are capable of doing all that.