In Styria, a violent thunderstorm front passed over Liezen, Bruck an der Mur and the area around Graz. In Lower Austria and Vienna, a storm with gusts of around 80 km/h caused falling branches and fallen scaffolding.
After the floods and mudslides on Saturday, there was a huge rush of volunteers in the Geländetal in Carinthia. As police spokeswoman Waltraud Dullnigg said, one is very grateful for the help of everyone who wants to take part in the clean-up work. But: “There are already so many people in the area that we can no longer spend them. The operational area is saturated.”
It is therefore requested that people should no longer make their way to meetings on Saturday in order to help: “We would like to thank you very much and are impressed by the extraordinarily high motivation of the helpers. But the clean-up work will probably take several more weeks .” Help will probably still be needed then, according to Dullnigg, who also referred to the community’s donation account – information on this is available at www.treffen.at
Onlookers disabled emergency services
But not only in the area of operation, but also on its edge, there was a rush on Saturday: As the police announced, Töbringer Straße, which leads to meetings, was blocked between the B94 and the B98 – the area is repeatedly blocked by onlookers and thus would hindered the clean-up work.
Styria – 30 missions in Liezen
Storms also kept the fire brigades in Styria on their toes on Friday afternoon and on Saturday night. In the afternoon, a storm front had passed over Liezen, the fire brigades were deployed to clear flooded streets and pump out basements. In the city area alone, 30 storm operations were recorded, said the Styrian Fire Brigade Association.
Bruck an der Mur and the surrounding area of Graz were also affected by heavy rain, and fire brigades had to move out in large parts of Styria during the night and clear fallen trees to the side. The focus was on the districts of Weiz, Fürstenfeld, Voitsberg and Hartberg, and a total of 78 operations were recorded.
2,000 helpers in Lower Austria
Almost 2,000 helpers from fire brigades in Lower Austria worked through 150 storm operations late on Friday evening. Franz Resperger from the state command in Tulln reported strong gusts of wind as well as intense rainfall. The districts of Krems, St. Pölten and Baden were mainly affected. Nobody got hurt.
According to the spokesman, wind speeds of more than 80 km/h had caused dozens of trees to fall on power and telephone lines. At the same time, heavy rain caused streets and underpasses to be flooded – including the Landhaus tunnel in St. Pölten, which had to be pumped out by the fire brigade.
Almost 300 missions in Vienna
In Vienna, there were also increased deployments of the professional fire brigade on Friday because of the storm. By midnight it had to be deployed 293 times, spokesman Christian Feiler reported. Of these, 140 operations were triggered by violent gusts of wind. At 8:00 p.m., the fire brigade was alerted to increased operational readiness, which lasted until almost 10:00 p.m. Two fire-fighting teams from the disaster relief service were also on duty during this time.
In the Wolfgang-Schmälzl-Gasse in Leopoldstadt, a collapsed scaffolding had to be secured for three hours. According to Feiler, it was brought back into its original position with several grabs in order to fix it there.
Two events in Vienna also fell victim to yesterday’s storm: Both “Elisabeth – The Musical” in front of Schönbrunn Palace and the Prater picnic by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra – a free open-air concert in front of the Ferris wheel – had to be cancelled. The safety of the audience and everyone involved could not have been guaranteed.
Source: Nachrichten
