dataTec Insights
Communications engineer from dataTec volunteers to help people in need.
Gerold Sept-Enzel managed THW's communications after the flood disaster in the Ahr valley in the summer.
Friday, 16 July. The call from the Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW) reaches Gerold Sept-Enzel in his home office.
It was a picture of destruction. Gigantic flash floods hit the otherwise tranquil Ahr valley in the night of 14 to 15 July 2021. Within a few hours, the flood turned the valley into a desolate scene of mud and debris, of collapsed bridges, washed away cars and destroyed houses.
Friday, 16 July. The call from the Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW) reaches Gerold Sept-Enzel in his home office. Since autumn 2020, the communications engineer has been advising dataTec customers as an applications engineer. He is also a volunteer helper and squad leader with THW Kirchheim unter Teck. The caller asks him to clarify whether he is available for a one-week assignment in the disaster area.
Everything now has to happen very quickly. Gerold Sept-Enzel calls his manager at dataTec. He gets the go-ahead immediately: There is no question of his employer, dataTec, not releasing him for this aid mission.
"When you saw the helpers coming back from their missions on the ground – that was really depressing. You could literally see the extent of the destruction and suffering in their faces. No one wants to experience anything like that for themselves."
dataTec Expert
Gerold Sept-Enzel / Technical Sales
On Monday evening, the helpers from Kirchheim/Teck arrive at the THW's "staging area" at the Nürburgring. Here, barely 40 kilometres from the disaster area, the relief organisations – the German Armed Forces, the Red Cross, the THW and others – have taken up station.
Gerold Sept-Enzel and his two comrades begin their work that very night. In twelve-hour shifts, they coordinate the THW's radio communication for the command post in the staging area. The internal radio network is the THW's central means of communication. It works even when – as in the days after the floods – the mobile phone networks are dead.
During the day, the helpers try to sleep – not an easy task with the busy helicopter traffic. "When you saw the helpers coming back from their missions on the ground – that was really depressing. You could literally see the extent of the destruction and suffering in their faces."
"When I start my work in the morning, I don't yet know what challenges the day will bring. You have to constantly readjust and be flexible. I have to do that at THW too. And of course I just think it's nice that I can help with my knowledge as a communications engineer."
He would be called away to the disaster area two more times that summer. When he is deployed in Bad Neuenahr in the third week – it is already mid-August – he is shocked: "A terrible sight. No one ever wants to experience anything like that for themselves."
The experience gained in his job at dataTec helps him in two ways when tackling such difficult tasks at THW: "When I start my work in the morning, I don't yet know what challenges the day will bring. You have to constantly readjust and be flexible. I have to do that at THW too. And of course I just think it's nice that I can help with my knowledge as a communications engineer."