The precipitation rates are gradually decreasing in the storage areas, but after midnight rain is to be expected more and more frequently in Lower Austria, Vienna and the northern half of Burgenland, according to the Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics (ZAMG).
On Sunday then cover in the east dense clouds in the sky. It rains frequently, sometimes persistently and heavily over the course of the day. Also in Salzburg, Upper Austria and in Styria there are still some cloud fields, but here it should stay with a few rain showers. In contrast, it will generally remain sunny in the west and south.
These prospects are likely to be greeted with relief in the southern and western federal states, where the clean-up work was underway on Saturday after the preceding severe storms with mudslides. Pictures show the extent of the destruction:
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Clean-up work in Tyrol and Vorarlberg
In predominantly dry weather on Saturday in Vorarlberg, the damage caused by the record rainfall was assessed and the clean-up work started or continued. Many firefighters had already worked through the night. There were almost no traffic restrictions.
After a landslide, the road between Buch and Wolfurt in the Bregenz district was still closed on Saturday. The area had been particularly hard hit by the heavy rain. This also applies to Dornbirn, where the ford over the Dornbirner Ache will remain closed until at least Tuesday. According to a statement from the city, the level of the Ache exceeded the 100-year flood mark by 20 centimeters on Friday evening. There was also damage in the Rappenloch and in the Alploch. The hiking trails remained open, but caution was called for.
The Environmental Institute also advised caution when bathing on flooded shore sections of Lake Constance because of a possible impairment of water quality. A temporarily increased germ load cannot be ruled out, it said. Water samples to determine the bathing quality at the Lake Constance bathing areas have already been taken.
flooding and mudslides
Heavy rain that lasted for hours made around 1,500 fire brigade operations necessary in Vorarlberg on Friday. The record rainfall led to numerous flooding of districts and streets, and mudslides also fell. An important section of the Rheintalautobahn (A14) was closed for hours, bringing traffic in the Lower Rhine Valley to a standstill. However, the end of the rain around midnight brought significant relief. Nobody got hurt.
Video: ORF reporter Martin Kopf reports from Vorarlberg
Water ingress into buildings was reported every minute, with basements and garages in particular filling up. Likewise, underpasses and lanes of important traffic arteries were flooded, several cars were stuck in the water masses. The Rheintalautobahn was not passable from 6 p.m. Friday evening until 2 a.m. Saturday morning. At times, the railway line from Dornbirn in the direction of Bregenz was also closed.
The Lower Rhine Valley was particularly affected. Streams that burst their banks flooded the town center of Wolfurt, mudslides fell, and several company areas were also flooded. Further south, in Götzis (district Feldkirch), a 200 square meter underground car park was two meters under water after a dam burst, in Altach the area in front of the Rheinauen swimming pool had to be flooded.
Record amounts of rain
If Vorarlberg’s watercourses had low water due to the drought of the past few weeks, they turned into raging rivers and streams on Friday afternoon. After the rains stopped, levels calmed down quickly, dropping to the “elevated mean water” level that occurs very often. The water level of Lake Constance – the lake is still very low – increased by 21 centimeters from Friday morning to Saturday morning – for Lake Constance to rise by just one centimeter, 5.4 million cubic meters of water are needed.
According to the ZAMG, there were new records of 24-hour rainfall across the country by Friday afternoon: In Bregenz, more than 200 liters per square meter came together by 4:30 p.m. (previous maximum: 174 liters/1968), in Dornbirn it was almost 180 liters (113 liters/2013). Almost 160 liters (126 liters/2013) were recorded in Fraxern in the Feldkirch district, and 150 liters (122 liters/1910) in the town of Feldkirch. For comparison: On average, no more than 100 liters of rain falls in Vorarlberg in the whole month of August.
Mure went down on the main road
In the Tyrolean district of Reutte, a mudflow relocated Tannheimer Straße (B199) on Saturday morning after heavy rainfall. At times it was no longer passable from Weißenbach, around 11:00 a.m. it was again open to traffic in two lanes. Within the municipality of Nesselwängle, the district of Rauth was not accessible due to a washed-out road, and a landslide was also reported in Nesselwängle.
Several fire brigades from the Tannheimer Tal and community employees were busy with the clean-up work. In both Nesselwängle and Grän, several streams burst their banks and cellars filled up. According to the fire brigade to ORF Radio Tirol, the Grän sawmill was about one and a half meters deep in the water, in Tannheim two companies in the industrial area were badly affected. The water was up to a meter high there.
Also in Carinthia, where two girls aged three and eight died on Thursday in a violent thunderstorm with hurricane-like gusts, and in Styria, which was also badly affected, the clean-up work continued after the freak weather. As the President of the Austrian Federal Fire Brigade Association, Robert Mayer, explained on Saturday, around 1,000 operations were recorded in Styria due to the storm, employing 370 fire brigades and five local mountain rescue services. In Carinthia, 94 fire brigade, water rescue, rescue and 16 police officers were on duty.
“Tragic and psychologically distressing”
Mayer emphasized that the storm operations would demand the population and fire brigades “from Lake Constance to Lake Neusiedl”. Nevertheless, the mostly honorary fire brigade members “proved once again that the Austrian fire brigade works, even if the operations are often tragic and psychologically stressful,” said Mayer in a press release distributed by the Ministry of the Interior.
Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) thanked the 350,000 members of the fire brigades at the weekend. They would do “invaluable work for security, but also for social cohesion in our country”. They “deserved every support,” said Karner.
Video: ORF weather expert Christa Kummer explains what people in storm areas have to be prepared for
Source: Nachrichten
