Flood in Germany

[ArthurDent]

300 Miles away from me people lost everything. Flood in Saxony and Bavaria, and other countries and no end in sight. Families lost their just built houses. Men lost their jobs, factories. Farmers lost their land and harvest. 12 Years of building up in former "Eastern Germany" are completely flooded.
In Dresden the Semper-Opera, the Dresden Zwinger and the Kathedral are already given up.
Many historic cities are destroyed.
Drinking water is rare. What will happen, when the water is gone? It will leave the dirt meters high.

Policemen, firemen, soldiers and volunteers working day and night.
All the day pictures on TV, we only knew from far away. Just like in war times.
But there are other pictures: People helping each other, filling thousands of sand bags, handing from one to the next in an endless chain to save the embankments. Solidarity.

And I'm just doing my job in a nice summer with sun and 30 degrees Celsius. Mawing my lawn. What can I do? Just sending money.

Hoping the levels down.

Arthur Dent

[ 08-18-2002, 07:54 PM: Message edited by: ArthurDent ]

[Don]

Saw a brief clip on last night's news about that. Hate to see it. Particularly hate to see those historic places and all that artwork gone.

[InSane1]

I saw it on the news last night as well. Very sad to see. I certainly hope the death toll doesnt rise anymore. Last night they were saying 102.

[ArthurDent]

Thanx for anwer, Don and Insane1!
Yeah, it looks the waters are going down, at least at Dresden and around. But it flows and, maybe, even Hamburg is in danger.

Unbelievable, what happens. It's the biggest disaster Germany has seen after 2nd WW.

But we'll all build it up together again!

CU & tcoy

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[Jim Burnes]

Have you any news of the city of Ansbach? Was there damage there also?

Jim Burnes

[CinaC]

Jim, would I be off-base in assuming you were with the 235th at some point?

Sorry, tho, couldn't find any specific info with Google.

[ArthurDent]

There are no bad news about Ansbach so I guess, they have no damages there.
Why are youe intersted in Ansbach? Are there relatives living? Or were you there on a holiday?

Look this link

Cu & tcoy

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[Jim Burnes]

I was with the 501st MP Company, 1st Armored Div, 72 to 74. First as a patrol supervisor, then MPI. Good times there.

Jim Burnes

[ArthurDent]

I'm glad that you remember Germany in a good way, Jim.

But now I've to go to bed, it's 3.11 a.m. here, my family will hang me this morning... ;-)

CU & tcoy

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[lone ranger]

A real tragedy for the people that were affected by the floods.

I have fond memories of Germany also. I spent three weeks at Hoenfels in Bavaria last September. Beautiful country side. Rolling hills and forests right out of a Grimm fairy tale. I'd love to go back some day.

We didn't get to see much off base since my unit arrived in Germany on September 9th. A few days later we had an evening off and several of us went to the main gate to catch a taxi. Thats when I noticed all of the flowers that the German civilians were leaving at the front gate to show their sympathy for what happened in NYC. Wow! There were tears in my eyes.

So after the German Security Officer at the front gate, (who spoke better English than most of the guys in my unit) helped us figure out the local telephone. We took a taxi into Parsburg and had dinner at a small bistro.

The parts that really stand out in my memory were... The taxi driver who seemed to only know one English phrase. It was "Don't worry, I'll get you there fast." (He wasn't joking!)

The castle, lit with floodlights, as we got out of the taxi in Parsburg. I remember telling the guys, "Now there's something you dont see everyday."

The food was good, and there is just something special about a pretty barmaid that hands you a beer that makes everything better! I never did get her name.

The next morning the company CO gave us the, "Oh by the way, we are at ThreatCon Charlie. You guys know your not supposed to go off post yet right?"

OOOPS!

Of course we know that! We wouldn't go off post.

At the end of our tour. we did get an official day off post. We spent the day walking around Regensburg. Where we managed to find another restaurant where the food was good and the barmaid was pretty.

Her name was Isa. I remembered to ask At some point in the afternoon she started buying me shots. I wanted to stick with the good beer, but I didn't want to insult the lady. After that things start to get a little fuzzy. Somehow I managed to find my way back to the bus stop.

But I think I'm in love.

I left my heart in Regensburg. It will never be a catchy song like that one about San Francisco, but what can I say?

[ 08-19-2002, 03:17 AM: Message edited by: lone ranger ]

[ArthurDent]

Wow, lone ranger, I can hardly hide my tears because your tragic love stories from Germany!
I hope you'll come back sometime and meet that girl again

Cu

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