Germany: Flooding and train strandings
According to the district of Karlsruhe, several locations were affected by severe floods. In Heidelsheim, the population was urged via warning app in the night to evacuate basements and ground floors and move to higher floors. The municipality of Gondelsheim described the situation on the social network Facebook as an "absolute emergency situation". In Bruchsal, the area around the station was flooded on Wednesday morning, leading to the suspension of rail traffic and partial power outages.
Throughout the district of Karlsruhe, rescue forces were deployed to around 500 incidents by midnight, according to the district administration. In Gondelsheim, one helper was injured while transporting sandbags, with no other injuries reported so far.
In North Rhine-Westphalia, there were numerous emergency deployments due to flooded streets and cellars, including in Mönchengladbach and Oberhausen. In Wesel, emergency services had to remove bollards at a car park because of chaotic scenes at a nearby lake, with all bathers trying to leave at once.
Uprooted trees and lightning strikes caused further damage, with significant impacts on rail passengers. In Bavaria, a Eurocity train collided with a tree that had fallen onto the tracks near Bad Endorf, according to the railway. The approximately 260 people on board were evacuated, and the affected section of track was closed for about five and a half hours.
In the Lower Saxony town of Augustfenn, a regional express also collided with a tree, as reported by the police. Around 130 passengers had to wait in the train for three hours before they could leave it around midnight. They were then cared for in a nearby sports hall.
In the North Rhine-Westphalian town of Hennef, a S-Bahn train was stranded because branches had become tangled in the overhead line. The train, carrying 200 to 300 passengers, had to be evacuated. Another S-Bahn train was positioned alongside it on the track so that passengers could transfer via ramps.
A lightning strike started a fire in a multi-family house in the municipality of Linkenheim-Hochstetten in the district of Karlsruhe, according to the fire department. Around 80 emergency services were on site, but no one was injured. In the North Rhine-Westphalian town of Grevenbroich, there were also severe lightning strikes, with two houses affected. The fire caused by the lightning strike was quickly extinguished.
According to the German Weather Service (DWD), the storms followed the hottest day of the year so far. The highest temperature was recorded on Tuesday at 36.5 degrees Celsius in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler in Rhineland-Palatinate. The weather service reports that the storm situation is not yet over, and strong thunderstorms are expected to continue on Wednesday, particularly in the north of the country.
Despite the urgency and chaos, the evacuated residents in Gondelsheim remained relatively calm, showing no signs of furious behavior. The rain-soaked rescue workers, battling against the relentless downpour, exhibited a furious determination to save lives and properties.
