As of: 07/09/2021 6:57 a.m.
Heavy rain again flooded streets and cellars in western and southern Germany. The A42 had to be completely closed at times. Storms raged again in the Czech Republic, where two people were killed.
Storms yesterday flooded cellars and streets in several regions of Germany. Parts of North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg were particularly affected.
In the Ruhr area, Autobahn 42 near Herne was flooded. Between the Herne cross and the Gelsenkirchen-Bismarck exit, numerous cars got stuck in the water, according to the control center of the motorway police. The section of the route has been closed. The police and fire brigade are in action with pumps, among other things, to monitor the situation and, if necessary, to take care of those stuck.
The fire brigade control center in Herne spoke of more than 50 missions in the evening. 130 people are deployed. Numerous cellars were full and several large exit roads were flooded. In the neighboring city of Bochum, the fire brigade also had to move out for storm-related operations. Twice lightning had struck trees there that threatened to topple over. In the town of Fröndenberg an der Ruhr, which was badly hit by floods a few days ago, several cellars were again full.
122 fire brigade operations in Passau
During storms in Eastern Bavaria, several cellars were also full and trees fell on streets. According to the Passau control center, the emergency services in the surrounding districts had been deployed 122 times in the early evening. Most often, emergency calls were received from the Rottal-Inn district. It was mostly about water damage, said a spokesman.
Chaos and traffic delays in Baden-Württemberg
In Baden-Württemberg, too, heavy rain sometimes led to chaos and traffic delays. In Kraichtal in the Karlsruhe district, many cellars were full, several streets were flooded and partly covered with mud, said a city spokeswoman. Within a few minutes it was raining so hard that the water could no longer run off.
Fatal car accident in the Czech Republic
Two people died in a storm in the Czech Republic when a tree fell on their car. The driver had no chance to react in time, the police said. Two children in the back seat were injured and taken to the hospital.
The accident occurred near the South Bohemian town of Pisek, almost 90 kilometers south of Prague. According to the police, the dead were strangers who had offered to drive the children home in the storm. The parents who continued on foot were unharmed.
In the south-west of the Czech Republic, fire brigades went out on dozens of missions in the evening to clear fallen trees from streets and empty basements that had filled with rainwater. Operations had to be interrupted on several railway lines. Just two weeks ago, a tornado in the south-east of the Czech Republic killed six people, injured hundreds and damaged around 1,200 houses.