A.nnette Klees didn’t have to think twice when a helper asked her if she still needed Christmas decorations: “We don’t have that anymore, it was in the basement and is gone.” The flood also fetched the Christmas balls. The helper gave the family new decorations. Now, fairy lights, reindeer and felt pendants decorate the transitional apartment, and the Klees have also received a set of red balls.
The young Klees family is about to celebrate their first Christmas after the flood in the Ahr valley. “You don’t really feel like Christmas,” says Annette Klees. Her husband Josef says he would like to go to a palm island to leave all the stress of the year behind. But that is not to be thought of. On Christmas Eve they eat with Annette Klees’ sister and mother at a long table in the neighboring apartment. It’s empty because the neighbors have already returned to their house in Ahrweiler. The Klees family has to wait a little longer for the day when they can finally go home. Nevertheless, it should be a nice party for the two children who have lost their home this year and their grandpa, who died in November.
The insurance company doesn’t want to pay
“It is yet another low blow this year that has resulted in you getting into this I-have-to-function mode,” says Josef Klees. The father-in-law took care of the construction sites a lot, they no longer have this help. Josef Klees’ parental leave is over, he is back to work and his wife is looking after the two children, who are three and one. The youngest is in kindergarten for two and a half hours in the morning to get used to it. Annette Klees has a lot to do in the small time window, she drives around the construction sites, turns on the heating in her own house and empties the dryers in the houses of her mother and grandma. Then quickly go shopping, coordinate helpers and deal with the correspondence with the lawyer.
This is necessary because the Klees family is at odds with the insurance company. She does not want to pay because she suspects there is a lack of construction in the foundation of the flood-damaged house. A lawyer now advises the family free of charge. “As long as the foundation has not been made, nothing else can be done on the house,” says Annette Klees.
“The wedding book saved itself”
Josef Klees recently started working full time again as a flight controller at the Bonn-Hangelar airfield, he maintains radio contact with the pilots and makes sure that everything is in order at the airport. In a way, getting back to work helps him. Before, he says, he often had nightmares after the flood. “That has been put into perspective by the work.” He no longer wakes up so often at night with the feeling that there is water under the bed and that he has to save the children. In the night of the flood, the Klees family lost seven neighbors. Cries for help could be heard. Josef Klees was scared to death with his family. His wife describes how things kept crashing into the house, cars, trees, gas tanks. “Dong” did it when they hit the iron grids on the windows below. “It sounded like a bell every time.”
.
#flood #Christmas #balls #brought #water