Words of comfort and a helping hand

How much will be left on our plates? I have wondered this several times over the past few days.

At a difficult time due to the Corona pandemic, three weeks ago a cloudburst turned the streets of Eygelshoven into a river of mud. After residents recovered from the shock, the debris clearing began.

And then...as of early last week, we are faced with heavy rainfall. Flooded basements, flooded streets, damage to roads, trees and roadsides. Not to mention the uncertainty of what lay ahead. The violent images of our southern Limburg neighbors and of Belgium and Germany played out in our heads like a bad movie.  

And just when we all literally and figuratively saw the sun shine again for a while, the intensely sad news of a fatality and two injured as a result of a major fire in the apartment complex on the Portbeemden in Eygelshoven reached us Saturday night. People had to leave their homes in a hurry, away from the danger. Eygelshoven again!

 
Words will not ease your grief, limit your damage or make the unpleasant film go away. Yet...they are the words of comfort I have heard on the streets and in the shelter these days and weeks of calamity. Words of comfort I have read on social media. Words of comfort and a helping hand, showing Kerkrade to be a close-knit community, a community that after water and fire now deserves a summer full of sunshine!

Petra Dassen
Your mayor