In the rural Western German district of Ahrweiler, a record amount of rainfall recently caused the region’s Ahr River to pour muddy rainwater into various towns. 

Nearly 200 residents of the town drowned to death because there was reportedly nowhere for the rapidly rising muddy water to travel due to the community’s valley, which has steep hills on both sides full of vineyards, according to North Carolina-headquartered Samaritan’s Purse.

The Samaritan’s Purse German affiliate office began organizing volunteers the day after floods swept through North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatine states. Samaritan’s Purse has deployed 14 international disaster response specialists to support the efforts of its German affiliate office.  

Samaritan’s Purse disaster relief specialist Nick Bechert told The Christian Post that numerous homes and family businesses, which have been around for thousands of centuries, have been destroyed by over 6 feet of mud water. The water swept into the villages in Ahrweiler and eventually washed into the North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatine states.

After the floodwaters receded the next day in western Germany, thousands of volunteers from Evangelische Freikirche Koeln Ostheim church in Cologne, Germany, partnered with Samaritan’s Purse to bring physical, emotional and spiritual support to residents in need. 

Over the past week, mud has been removed from the centuries-old structures bucket by bucket. Many homes are reportedly still in the de-mudding process and various structures in the path of the flood water will have a long way to go to be rehabilitated.  

Source: christianpost.com