On the following days, the emergency services were also busy with the clean-up work.
The most severe storm damage occurred in the north-east of Upper Austria, the storm raged particularly badly on Wednesday evening in the city of Freistadt. There alone, over 100 fire brigade helpers eliminated the worst damage on Thursday. Strong gusts of wind had torn off the roofs of several houses, and lumps of cement cement, branches and bricks lay on the streets.
The clean-up work lasted until Saturday evening, says Martin Hochreiter, commander of the Freistadt volunteer fire brigade. “Some only slept for three hours on the night of the storm and were constantly on duty the following day. Our emergency services did a great job,” he says.
After the storm on Wednesday, the weather conditions have largely calmed down. For Friday afternoon, the state fire brigade association reported only ten minor storm damage.
Millions in damages for farmers
Agriculture was particularly badly hit on Tuesday night: hailstorms devastated large parts of the cultivated areas. The Austrian hail insurance currently assumes damage of more than 6.5 million euros.
Busy week
- 3400 firefighters were in action in Upper Austria last week.
- 465 missions had to be dealt with – mainly due to flooding and water damage.
- 6.5 million euros Upper Austria’s farmers are likely to have been damaged by heavy hailstorms on Monday.
Source: Nachrichten
