Storm in Germany: After storm "Ylenia" comes storm "Zeynep"

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Stormy prospects: A harbor ferry on the Elbe in Hamburg

Photo: Daniel Bockwoldt / dpa

A few people are sitting on board a ship when a wave hits the glass in the bow.

The pane shatters.

People jump up, within seconds there is water on the ground: A video that is circulating on social networks shows this scene that took place on a harbor ferry in Hamburg in the morning.

A police spokesman confirmed the incident to SPIEGEL, so far there is no information about injuries.

The police and the operating company Hadag now want to reconstruct how the accident could have happened.

The shattered glass is just one - albeit sensational - consequence of the violent storm "Ylenia", with which people in large parts of Germany are struggling on Thursday.

The weather has calmed down a bit at the moment, and you are "between the hurricanes," a spokesman for the German Weather Service (DWD) told SPIEGEL.

Here is an overview of the (weather) situation, without claiming to be complete:

traffic delays

The storm caused widespread

.

Deutsche Bahn (DB) stopped long-distance traffic in the northern half for safety reasons, and local and regional traffic were also affected.

According to Deutsche Bahn, there were no long-distance trains in regions north of the stations in Münster, Hamm, Kassel, Magdeburg and Berlin until further notice.

Individual long-distance connections in the south were also affected, such as an ICE connection near Passau in the direction of Vienna.

There were also delays and cancellations in regional and local transport.

A railway spokesman warned travelers of nationwide effects, even in areas not directly affected by the storm.

Travel should be postponed if possible, he said.

The stop of rail traffic is a "precautionary measure" based on experiences with previous extreme weather conditions.

It is better to hold trains in stations than having to stop them in the open.

Travelers could be looked after much worse there.

In the meantime, Deutsche Bahn has started cleaning up.

"It's still too early to assess the damage, but the damage is significant," said railway spokesman Achim Stauss.

"At the moment, repair teams from the railways are working flat out to clear routes, cut trees with chainsaws and repair overhead lines, which is not easy in these weather conditions."

Due to the ongoing storm, further disruptions are to be expected.

There will also be problems with the second expected storm front, said Stauss.

"I'm afraid our travelers will have to live with restrictions for a longer period of time."

Meanwhile, restrictions have also been reported for

.

Passengers at Berlin Brandenburg International Airport needed patience in the morning.

Due to strong gusts of wind, aircraft handling was severely restricted, and there were delays, as a spokesman for the operating company said.

According to the operator, connections to Berlin, Munich and Hamburg were affected at the largest German airport in Frankfurt am Main.

Around a dozen flights were canceled at Hamburg Airport.

The storm front also forces

to be patient.

Because the Elbe is currently closed to large ships, the cruise ship "Aidaprima" is not allowed to call at the port of Hamburg as planned, as a spokeswoman for the port authority HPA said.

Ferry traffic was also temporarily suspended in many places, for example in Lübeck or Rostock.

power outages

In many places, people were at least temporarily in the dark: In

, the largest electricity network operator, Bayernwerk Netz, recorded 10,000 people affected, as a spokesman said.

In

, around 54,000 households lost power on Thursday night, the operator Westnetz announced on Twitter.

Later, around 20,000 people in the Arnsberg, Niederrhein, Siegen and Osnabrück regions in Lower Saxony were affected.

The cause of the failures were often trees that had fallen on power lines.

In most cases, the supply was restored quickly.

There were also power outages in

and

, as reported by RBB and MDR, among others.

flood

In

, the fish market was flooded again in the morning.

"A value of 1.98 meters above the mean high water level (MHW) was measured at around 5 a.m. at the St. Pauli level," said a spokesman for the storm surge warning service of the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH) in Hamburg.

On the North Sea coast, the BSH speaks of a storm surge from 1.5 meters above MHW.

A severe or very severe storm surge is only spoken of from values ​​of 2.5 or 3.5 meters.

There was a storm surge in some places on the Schleswig-Holstein North Sea coast - in Husum, for example, a water level of 1.64 meters above the mean high water level was measured.

At many other gauges, however, the water levels remained below the level of a storm surge.

There is also a risk of a storm surge on the

for Thursday afternoon and Friday morning .

These are quite normal, but unusual in the frequency as at the moment, said the BSH spokesman.

In

, precipitation and snowmelt have caused the water levels in the Werra, Ilm and Gera river basins to rise.

Nevertheless, the situation has developed less badly than expected, said the spokesman for the Hildburghausen district office, Tim Pechauf.

"Ylenia" even played a positive role: "Apparently the storm blew away some of the rain clouds."

This was also confirmed by the Thuringian State Office for the Environment, Mining and Nature Conservation: "Last night's precipitation was less heavy than predicted in the high areas of the Thuringian Forest."

The Harzwasserwerke are preparing for further rainfall and snowmelt.

The situation at the dams and lakes in the

is "tense, but under control," said a spokeswoman.

The company is currently expecting 30 to 60 millimeters of rain by the beginning of next week, said the spokeswoman.

The aim is to completely intercept the impending flood with the dams and thus protect the Harz foreland.

accidents

The fire brigades and police reported storm-related storm operations from large parts of Germany.

As a rule, the helpers reported about fallen trees and damaged roofs - according to the fire brigade in Berlin there were more than 600 weather-related operations since nine o'clock alone.

Occasionally, however, there were also more serious incidents.

In Lower Saxony, a driver died.

He was on the L252 between Bad Bevensen and Seedorf in

on Thursday morning around nine o'clock when a tree fell on his car and killed him.

As a spokesman for the fire department confirmed, the 37-year-old died immediately.

There was also a storm death in

: a 55-year-old died on a country road.

A tree fell on the man's car due to the strong wind, police said.

In the

, a young electric scooter driver fell through the storm and was seriously injured.

According to the police, the 16-year-old was hit by a gust on a bridge and crashed into the bridge railing.

He came to a hospital.

A 15 meter high antenna mast fell on the Ringbahn in

in a storm.

The fire brigade moved out with a crane to clear the route, a spokesman said.

The Berlin fire brigade declared a state of emergency both during the night and on Thursday morning.

, Lower Saxony

, trees have fallen on two houses in residential areas.

In

, regional trains collided with blown trees or parts of trees on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning.

The outlook

After a brief calm, the low "Zeynep" is expected to cause a storm again on Friday.

It is assumed that this will be "an even more dangerous hurricane" than "Ylenia," the DWD spokesman told SPIEGEL.

The north of East Frisia up to Bremen will probably be hit particularly hard from the late afternoon.

At night, the low could spread over the “further north German area”.

Hurricane gusts - especially on the East Frisian Islands - could reach top speeds of up to 150 kilometers per hour.

The effects of the low will also be felt in central Germany.

The DWD spokesman urgently advises not to leave the house in the affected regions from Friday to Saturday night.

The situation is "extremely dangerous" in forest areas in particular.

bbr/apr/dpa/AFP