Image: UNKNOWN (BFVFB/K. LENZ)
In Gamlitz (Leibnitz district), a sliding slope damaged a wall of a nursing home. It had to be partially evacuated. In the street a few kilometers away, the railcar of a passenger train derailed on Tuesday evening because of the tracks that had been laid by a mudslide, the police said. In Gamlitz, parts of a stone wall about 80 meters long and five meters wide behind a nursing home near the town center came loose on Tuesday afternoon due to heavy rainfall. Earth and rock pushed in balcony doors and penetrated the rooms of residents who were no longer in their premises at the time. Mayor Friedrich Partl (ÖVP) told the “Kleine Zeitung” that around 20 people had to vacate their rooms because the rooms were or are at risk: “Some of them are with the families or in other nursing homes.”
Train derailed due to mudflow
Shortly after 10 p.m., a railcar of an ÖBB passenger train that was traveling on the route between Spielfeld and Ehrenhausen derailed in Straß. According to the police, the 36-year-old train driver, who had initiated a braking maneuver that was in vain, suffered minor injuries and was taken to Wagna Regional Hospital for medical evaluation. The cause of the derailment was a mudslide. Masses of earth and rubble had laid the tracks. There were no passengers on the train.
In the Feldbach area fire brigade association alone, 26 fire departments with over 300 emergency services were deployed at numerous damaged areas. The main tasks were pumping out cellars and clearing traffic routes of mudslides, according to a broadcast. In order to prevent renewed flooding in the village of Bairisch Kölldorf in Bad Gleichenberg – the place was already affected by masses of water on May 7th – a kind of protective wall made of concrete barriers and sandbags was erected.
Source: Nachrichten
