BERLIN (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd September, 2021) German Chancellor Angela Merkel returned on Friday to the flood-ravaged western state of Rhineland-Palatinate and will travel to neighboring North Rhine-Westphalia on Sunday.
This is the chancellor's second trip to the worst-hit Ahrweiler district in the Ahr valley after heavy rains and floodwater swept away dozens of homes and bridges and killed at least 190 people in July.
Merkel met with the state's governor, Malu Dreyer, who showed her around Altenburg and briefed her on reconstruction progress, before holding a press conference in the nearby village of Grafschaft.
"We will not forget you. The new Federal government will continue this work," Merkel told reporters.
A Grafschaft administration official said that the commune of 11,000 had 150 affected households and was struggling to build mobile homes for everyone.
The German federal parliament will vote on Tuesday on a 30-billion-euro ($35.6 billion) reconstruction aid package for crisis areas.
Merkel's deputy spokeswoman Ulrike Demmer told reporters in Berlin that the chancellor would also meet with North Rhine-Westphalia's premier Armin Laschet in Hagen on Sunday.
