‘We had little choice’: volunteers clear up after German floods

Two months after 133 people died in the Ahr valley, residents say they feel abandoned by politicians

When she heard on the radio just weeks after floods had devastated her family-run restaurant and her home town that German authorities no longer classed it as a disaster zone, Paddy Amanatidis felt like she had been punched in the stomach.

It's hard to be told that everything is supposedly OK when you have no electricity, no clean water, no heating," she said.