Flooding in Upper Austria: Danube exceeded first alarm level in Linz

Firefighters have been in action across Upper Austria since Monday evening due to heavy rain. Dozens of cellars and houses had to be pumped out and streets were flooded.

• Photo gallery: Floods in Upper Austria

The hydrographic service is expecting the Inn and Salzach rivers to reach their highest levels on Tuesday morning, and the Danube in Linz has already exceeded the first alarm level of 6.74 metres. This is why flooding is also expected in Linz on Tuesday afternoon. The forecasts were therefore revised upwards again significantly overnight into Tuesday.

“During the night, a very large area of ​​heavy precipitation remained in the north of the Alps,” explains Christian Wakolbinger from the hydrographic service. The rainfall was significantly heavier locally than had been forecast on Monday.

Danube rises to over eleven meters in Grein

The following maximum levels are expected: Schärding water level 6.5 metres (today at noon), Achleiten water level 7.3 metres (today afternoon), Linz water level 7 metres (today afternoon), Mauthausen water level 6.6 metres (today afternoon), Grein water level 11.2 metres (around 10 p.m.).

Then the situation should ease, says Wakolbinger: “The rain will decrease, that is already apparent.” Since it is a “long wave”, the water levels will remain high for longer. In Linz, the flood water is expected to subside in the evening hours.

Wakolbinger says he is not nervous. Although the alarm level has now been exceeded, since no big wave is expected, he is: “Healthily tense and focused.”

Schärding severely affected

The Schärding region is also badly affected: In the Inn catchment area, of all places, a lot of water came from above during the night into Tuesday. Due to the higher rainfall in the catchment area, this second wave is now somewhat higher than predicted in the long term.

That evening, the Leonhard-Kaiser-Weg and the parking lot at the boat dock in Schärding were closed to traffic as a precaution. Additional information was sent to the public that evening via civil defense SMS. “Due to the slow decline predicted, the dismantling of the flood protection and the cleaning will probably not begin until Wednesday,” said fire brigade commander Markus Furtner.