No normality

Floods: anxious wait for financial aid

Mud upon mud: For weeks, a state of emergency prevailed in southern Burgenland.

(Bild: Schulter Christian)

Those affected criticize delays in the disbursement of disaster aid. The province promises faster processing.

Following the storm disaster at the beginning of June, numerous houses in southern Burgenland are still uninhabitable, for example in St. Martin in der Wart or Unterschützen. By amending the special guidelines for disaster aid, the province of Burgenland has promised those affected quick and unbureaucratic help.

Damage documented
Among other things, the disaster fund was increased and mobile teams were sent to houses to document the damage. Normality is still a long way off in these cases of particular hardship. Added to this is the tense financial situation, as many affected households with damage in excess of EUR 15,000 are now waiting impatiently for disaster aid to be paid out.

Even the army was deployed.

(Bild: Schulter Christian)

No quick help
"We can't order furniture if we don't know when we'll get the money. This has nothing to do with impatience, but with the fact that we were promised quick help and our houses are still uninhabitable," says one affected person angrily. The resentment of the population is also being felt by the mayors.

"Just as quickly as the damage was recorded by the state's staff, the process is now running just as slowly because we as municipalities lack the necessary expert reports from the state to commission the experts," criticize Oberwart's mayor Georg Rosner and Oberschützen's mayor Hans Unger (both ÖVP).

Promises from the state
The state is now promising to speed up the process. According to the office of Deputy Governor Astrid Eisenkopf: "The state has increased its personnel capacities in order to process the approximately 1500 applications for disaster aid quickly."

Eisenkopf: "Additional staff from other departments are being deployed to cope with the high workload. The municipalities will be informed by the end of next week at the latest in the remaining cases where an expert's opinion is required so that the support reaches those affected as quickly as possible."