Severe storms in Austria claim five lives, including two children
Created: 08/19/2022Updated: 08/19/2022 8:19 p.m
Rescue vehicles are next to fallen trees at an accident site on Lake St. Andrä.
Two children died in a severe storm in Carinthia, and other people were injured, some seriously.
© Georg Bachhiesl/APA/dpa +++ dpa picture radio +++
In Austria, severe storms with gusts of almost 140 kilometers per hour caused devastation and claimed five lives.
Two children also die.
The information in the news ticker.
Severe weather in Austria: Five people die as a result of the change in the weather.
"Immeasurable tragedy": Federal President Van der Bellen about dead girls.
Streets flooded: It rained heavily in parts of the Alpine Republic on Friday too.
Update from August 19, 8:10 p.m .:
In the evening hours, storms led to further flooding in western Austria.
As can be seen in pictures, roads near Bregenz on Lake Constance were flooded.
According to the
ORF
, several underpasses and stretches of road were also flooded during the day - train connections were also affected
Update from August 19, 10:03 a.m .:
On Thursday, two children were killed in severe storms in Austria and around a dozen other people were injured, some seriously, when trees fell on a Carinthian bathing lake in St. Andrä.
"It caught us all completely unexpectedly," an eyewitness told the "Kleine Zeitung".
Bathers were blown over by the hurricane-force storm.
In Gaming in the state of Lower Austria, three women were killed by a tree while hiking, the police said.
Even the day after a storm that killed five people in Austria, some rail connections in the south of the country remain interrupted.
The federal states of Carinthia and Styria were also affected on Friday, where a storm had blown down power poles at up to 139 kilometers per hour.
The power supply for rail traffic and, in the meantime, also for tens of thousands of households was interrupted.
Among other things, trains from Vienna to Venice had to be diverted via Salzburg, as announced by the Austrian Federal Railways.
Regional connections were also at a standstill.
According to the motorway operator Asfinag, the southern motorway (A2), which had been closed due to fallen trees and power outages in tunnels, was open again on Friday.
Severe storms in Austria claim five lives, including two children
First report from August 18th:
St. Andrä - First, heat waves made Europe difficult for a long time.
Then on Thursday there were severe storms in many places.
In Austria, the thunderstorms with gusts of almost 140 kilometers per hour claimed five lives - two of the fatalities were children.
The two girls died at a small bathing lake in Carinthia by falling trees.
Severe storms in Carinthia: Falling trees kill two girls
As reported by the police and the Red Cross, several trees fell on Thursday at a small bathing lake in St. Andrä in the state of Carinthia.
Two girls aged four and eight died and eleven people were injured, some seriously.
Further north, three other people were killed by a tree in Gaming, Lower Austria.
According to the state meteorological service ZAMG, the storm speeds reached up to 139 km/h on Thursday.
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The Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) expressed his condolences to the families of the victims.
“My thoughts are with the parents and relatives at this difficult time.
A terrible stroke of fate for the families,” said the Chancellor on Twitter.
He thanked the helpers on site.
"Thanks to all emergency and rescue workers, who often risk a lot in such situations to help their fellow human beings." Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen also spoke on Twitter about the accident.
He appeared deeply concerned.
"It is an immeasurable tragedy that two children died in the storms," wrote the politician.
Tens of thousands of homes cut off from electricity
The storm also paralyzed traffic in the south of the country.
In Styria, Carinthia and East Tyrol, the trains were temporarily at a standstill after the power supply for rail traffic failed due to the storm, as announced by the Austrian Federal Railways.
Due to the gusts of wind, dozens of trees near Griffen fell on the southern autobahn (A2) in Carinthia.
There were also power outages in tunnels.
The important transport link to Italy was closed in several places for clean-up and repair work.
In Styria, tens of thousands of households were cut off from the power supply because high-voltage lines and 2,000 transformer stations were damaged.
"In many cases, our colleagues have to cut their way to the repair work with a chainsaw," said a spokesman for Energie Steiermark to the ORF broadcaster.
It could take days, if not weeks, to fix all the damage.
There were also severe thunderstorms elsewhere on Thursday.
On the popular holiday island of Corsica, more than 40,000 people were without electricity at times, and at least six people died in storms – partly also because of falling trees.
In Munich, the weather also changed after a long heat wave.
Due to thunderstorms, the organizers temporarily interrupted the World Championships in Athletics, and people fled from the heavy rain
(dpa/bme).
