Unweather brings mass rainfall to Germany
Flooded Streets, Uprooted Trees, Basements Filled with Water: Heavy Rain Causes Long-Term Interventions by Fire Department and Police in Several Parts of Germany. The Weather Has Not Yet Calmed Down.
Heavy rainfall flooded streets in several parts of Germany on Wednesday and filled basements. In Rastatt, Baden-Württemberg, storm and heavy rain led to around 100 interventions by the end of the day. "Officers had to stop traffic because the rain was so strong that they could hardly drive," reported a police spokesperson. Several trees had fallen on cars and trucks.
A police spokeswoman told SWR that the official weather warning reached the police only after the storm had passed. Although it could be seen on weather apps that it was coming, "no one had calculated that it would be this severe." Due to the sudden heavy rain, streets in Rastatt's city center were flooded, basements and sewers filled. So far, there are no reported injuries. However, significant damage is expected.
The weather calmed down in Germany for the most part at night. However, there is expected to be strong thunderstorms on Thursday. "The thunderstorm and hail activity is likely to shift towards the extreme south and east," said NTV meteorologist Björn Alexander. Although Tief "Elke" has moved away, another low-pressure system, "Frieda," is expected to bring the next storm and thunderstorm system to Germany from Friday to Saturday.
In Berlin, water had entered the magazine of the Central and State Library (ZLB). In an Instagram post by the library, employees were seen forming a chain and using buckets to remove water from the building. ZLB Operations Director Jonas Fansa told rbb: "Here are hundreds of thousands of partly old books that are acutely endangered." As reported by the broadcaster, a water pipe in the basement of the library in Berlin-Mitte had burst.
Train Hits Uprooted Trees
There were numerous police interventions in Hesse due to the storm. In Dietzenbach, an S-Bahn underpass had to be closed due to water buildup. On the A45 and A66, emergency services cleared five uprooted trees from the roads. On the B43a between Hanau-Hauptbahnhof and Hanau-Wolfgang, the water reached a height of around 200 meters on the road, causing the road to be closed in the direction of Fulda.
In the eastern part of Saxony, the fire department was called to about 85 storm-related interventions in the districts of Bautzen and Görlitz in the evening, according to a spokesperson for the control center. Near Bautzen, a train collided with two uprooted trees in the evening. It derailed. The trees had to be removed from the tracks.
In the Landkreis Miesbach in Upper Bavaria, an afternoon thunderstorm cell caused flooded streets and filled basements. A spokesperson for the Rosenheim Fire Department Control Center said that trees had been uprooted. In the underfrankish Landkreis Aschaffenburg, streets and sewers were temporarily impassable due to the water.
The International Red Cross has expressed concern over the extreme weather conditions affecting several regions in Germany, with the UN meteorological agency warning of more bad weather to come. Consequently, flood warnings have been issued for Berlin, with the Central and State Library (ZLB) taking measures to protect its vulnerable collection.
The extreme weather conditions have caused disruptions beyond just Germany, with reports of trains being hit by uprooted trees in other parts of Europe. In France, for instance, the high-speed train service has been suspended due to flooding and fallen trees on the tracks.
