Renfrew County turns to Germans for flooding expertise

To make sure residents are properly prepared to protect their homes from another spring flood, Renfrew County looked far and wide for the right expertise — all the way to Germany, in fact.

Germany's volunteer emergency relief program, known as Technische Hilfswerk (THW), has been around since the 1950s, and has gained a reputation as one of the most efficient disaster response teams in the world for their work during such catastrophes as Hurricane Katrina.

Now THW is in Renfrew County, teaching officials there how to properly build sandbag barriers.

"Why wouldn't we look to the world's best, and give our guys and gals on the front line the confidence to be able to deal with flooding should it occur again this year?" asked Renfrew County paramedic Chief Michael Nolan on CBC Radio's Ottawa Morning.

Residents struggled last spring

Residents struggled to cope with last year's flooding because they hadn't been properly trained to deal with the deluge, Nolan said, and learning while the water rose wasn't ideal.

"The worst time to be managing a disaster is when the disaster is upon you," Nolan said.

Inexperienced volunteers would often shovel too much sand into the bags, preventing them from forming a solid wall, Nolan said.

Renfrew County was among the communities hardest hit by last year's flooding, and qualified for disaster relief form the province.

Preparing for the future

Some 80,000 members of THW are trained and waiting in Germany to respond to disasters wherever they occur. Klaus Buchmüller, a member of THW for nearly 20 years, has flown to such countries as Afghanistan and Iraq to provide relief.

"Whenever we have a disaster in Germany or outside of Germany, we can call them and within hours ... they are equipped and they have their gear with them," Buchmüller said.

Four volunteers, who travelled to Canada on THW's dime, are currently in Renfrew County.

On Monday Buchmüller and his team held a "train the trainer" workshop to teach proper techniques to public servants such as municipal emergency managers, who can then pass their knowledge on to others.

"They did very great. We as trainers had a lot of fun with them," Buchmüller said. "I saw a lot of smiles, we had lots of handshakes, we had a lot of thanks for the instructors for sharing their humour and also sharing their expertise."

Nolan said he feels Renfrew County is now better prepared to handle flooding, should it occur again.

"THW has set standards around the world for managing flooding, and they brought those standards to us," Nolan said.