Large parts of Austria have been caught cold by the winter.
Fire brigades are in constant use, schools remain closed, households have no electricity.
Anyway, the weather is improving.
Munich – It's winter.
And Austria is feeling this the hard way.
In the Alpine republic it is snowing and snowing and snowing.
As
wetter.at
reports, the cold and very humid air masses from the Mediterranean bring the white flakes in masses to the southern federal states of Carinthia and Styria.
In the mountains there is therefore 120 centimeters of fresh snow.
Winter chaos in Austria: thousands of households without electricity – school cancellations due to the risk of snow breakage
The violent onset of winter in Austria causes a lot of chaos.
On Tuesday morning, around 4,000 households in western Styria were cut off from the power supply, according to a spokesman for "Energie Steiermark".
According to the state energy supplier "Kelag", 5,000 households were affected by power outages in Lower and Central Carinthia.
Several roads were blocked by fallen trees.
In Carinthia, the schools remained closed in some communities because there is a high risk of snow breakage.
Therefore, the children should not be expected to go to class.
Crisis teams sometimes met.
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Snow as far as the eye can see: winter has arrived in Austria with a vengeance.
© IMAGO / Bernd March
Snow chaos in Austria: trees fall on roads - fire brigades have to rescue trucks
Within a day, the fire brigades in Carinthia were called to hundreds of operations, it is said.
Trucks that had broken down had to be salvaged.
According to the police, there were various accidents with body damage and minor injuries.
The removal of trees that had fallen on roads had to be stopped overnight because the emergency services would also have put themselves in too great a danger.
Because from Monday to Tuesday more snow was discharged over the regions - about 30 centimeters.
As early as Monday afternoon, the cities of Klagenfurt and Villach had warned against entering public parks, forests and hiking trails.
Branches can break and fall from the wet snow.
On the advice of the police, car journeys that are not absolutely necessary should be avoided in the Lower Carinthia area.
The standard writes that there is a high risk of avalanches at higher altitudes in the Gurktal Alps, the Karawanken, the Saualp, the Koralp and the
Packalp
.
According to
wetteronline
, the second highest warning level 4 was issued for many regions in Carinthia and Styria above 1600 meters.
Snow sports away from the secured slopes are not recommended.
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Warning, snowy road: These drivers of cars and trucks are on the road under the most adverse conditions.
© IMAGO / Bernd March
Onset of winter in Austria: regional train and truck collide - two injured
The winter weather also led to an accident between a truck and a regional train in Pinzgau, in western Salzburg state.
As reported by
oe24
, citing the police and the ORF radio station
Ö3
, the truck slipped so much on a snowy road in front of a level crossing that it got stuck in the track area.
The 49-year-old driver tried in vain to move the truck but eventually left the cab to warn the driver.
But despite emergency braking, the train only came to a standstill after 200 meters, hit the truck and tore it along a bit.
The overhead line and the tracks were damaged.
Both drivers suffered injuries and had to be taken to a hospital.
The nine passengers on the train were not injured.
The snowfall is supposed to decrease and retreat into the mountains.
But it will still take some time before the traces of the winter chaos in Austria are eliminated.
(mg)
List of rubrics: © IMAGO / Bernd März