Severe storms in Germany: floods, injuries and landslides

Thu 05.09.2024 | 12:55
– Editorial staff – Source: dpa/jsl

After record heat on Wednesday, violent thunderstorms hit Germany overnight into Thursday. Whole towns were flooded, roads had to be closed and people were injured.

On Wednesday afternoon, evening and into the night of Thursday, heavy thunderstorms swept across parts of Germany. The north was hit particularly hard. Six people had to be rescued in Hamburg, and underpasses in Bremen were flooded. There were also storms in the south with heavy rain and flooding.

Hamburg: Storm blows wooden hut off ship – six injured

Six people were injured on a ship in the Moorfleet district of Hamburg on Wednesday evening during a storm. “A homemade wooden hut was blown off a moored barge,” a fire department spokesman told the German Press Agency. Several people were in the hut. Four people were moderately injured, two slightly.

“One person who was still in the wooden hut had to be freed using a chainsaw,” said the spokesman about the operation on the Holzhafenufer. Otherwise, according to the fire department, only a few weather-related operations were recorded.

Due to the storm with numerous lightning strikes, singer Ronan Keating’s show at the Stadtpark Open Air also had to be cancelled, as the Karsten Jahnke Concert Management announced.

Bremen and Oldenburg: Heavy rain causes flooding and uprooted trees

Heavy rain and severe thunderstorms hit parts of Lower Saxony and Bremen on Wednesday. The video at the beginning of the article shows mudslides and damage. In Bremen, according to the Bremer Straßenbahn AG, several underpasses and tunnels were no longer passable for buses and trains. In Oldenburg, streets were flooded and the fire brigade had to respond to more than 50 calls in the district. Trees were uprooted, large branches broke off and there was flooding on streets, in basements and on sidewalks, as the Oldenburg district fire brigade reported.

The cause was a heavy storm that swept across the northern district in the afternoon, according to the fire department. An uprooted tree fell onto the road on Autobahn 29. Because visibility was only five meters at times, traffic on the highway came to a temporary standstill. In Hude (Oldenburg district), a truck driver had to be freed from his truck after a tree fell on the vehicle.

Several suspected lightning strikes

In Geestland, east of Bremerhaven, there were also around 30 operations due to the storm; 120 emergency services were deployed. Due to flooding, roads were temporarily closed there, the fire department announced. Cellars also flooded. After a suspected lightning strike, the roof of a residential building caught fire in the evening. The fire was reportedly quickly extinguished; no one was injured. The police estimated the damage at 350,000 euros.

Another suspected lightning strike occurred in Hagen im Bremischen, the police reported. A roof structure there also caught fire. The fire brigade prevented the fire from spreading to the rest of the house; no one was injured. The damage was estimated at 100,000 euros.

Bavaria: Villages are flooded

From the evening onwards, heavy thunderstorms with heavy rain, lightning and thunder struck mainly in Upper Bavaria. According to the Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation, trees fell on parked cars in Starnberg. A mudslide occurred at Walchensee and a road had to be closed.

The Eichstätt district was hit particularly hard. The heavy rain overloaded the sewage system and flooded entire streets in the Walting district of Pfünz and the neighboring town of Hofstetten. In Pfünz, a fire engine even got stuck in the floodwaters.

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