Employees collected money, sent relief supplies and lent a hand on site
Lingen, November – Just a few days after the devastating flood disaster, emco Group employees set out to help on site. Paul Vornberger, Jonah Glückhardt, Hannes Buss, Marco Busch, Christopher Plangemann and Thorsten Möller got shovels, buckets and wheelbarrows and set off for Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler. There, the Emslanders were sent together with another squad to the small village of Ahrbrück. “The further we drove into the valley, the more we could see the extent of this incredible destruction,” Vornberger reports. The first place they went to was a single-family house, which they cleared of water, mud, stored food, furniture and other things. “What I personally remember most was this terrible stench of petrol, oil and faeces. Sometimes you couldn’t stand being in the cellar for more than ten minutes,” Paul Vornberger says. “But I will also never forget the blank, sad looks of the locals, some of whom had lost everything,” he says.
Employees help on site and collect in Lingen
More than 180 people died. Initial estimates put the damage at tens of billions of dollars. The unimaginable flood catastrophe swept away houses, destroyed entire villages and took away people’s belongings. Among the emco Group employees in Lingen, 2,440 euros were spontaneously collected. The management topped it up to 4,500 euros. At the suggestion of an employee, this was to help the severely affected families in Iversheim, a northern district of Bad Münstereifel. “We received a list of urgently needed items,” Marco Hilbers reports. The donation was used to buy dishwashers, freezers, freezer combinations, floor-standing cookers, tumble dryers, refrigerators, heaters as well as wet and hoovers in Lingen and brought them directly to Iversheim. “We talked to such grateful people who had really lost everything,” Marco Hilbers tells us. It is a happy feeling to be able to help quickly and unbureaucratically.
emco floor mats brought to the Ahr valley
Thomas Batzke, an emco employee, saw an appeal for donations for flood victims from the logistics company Wipperfürt on Facebook. There, a contractor called for donations of doormats, among other things. Batzke put together around 60 mats at the company and brought them personally to Walporzheim in the Ahr valley.
Donation supports purchase of a swap body
The Lingen-based company has also supported the Association of Helpers and Supporters of THW Lingen e.V. with a donation of 2,000 euros. This enabled the association to purchase an urgently needed swap body for loading a sandbag filling machine. The THW is very actively involved in the current operations in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate.
