Flooded streets and basements, fallen trees: severe storms have caused damage in many parts of Germany. Many railway lines are still closed. The German Weather Service expects severe weather today.
Severe storms have passed over parts of Germany. Covered roofs, fallen trees, flooded basements and hail damage to buildings were reported from central, southern and southwestern Germany. The police did not provide any information about injuries until the morning. The German Weather Service (DWD) is still expecting storms on Friday.
Bahn provides trains for stranded people
The train service is according to the Deutsche Bahn nationwide significantly affected. Several routes are closed. The Siegen – Letmathe route is affected, on which IC trains between Frankfurt / Main and Münster in Westphalia are canceled. The Kassel-Göttingen route is also closed. ICE and IC trains between Fulda and Göttingen will therefore be diverted, and the Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe stop will be omitted.
There is currently no long-distance traffic on the closed route from Frankfurt/Main via Mainz to Wiesbaden. According to Bahn, the route between Hamburg and Berlin is also closed. Trains will be diverted via Stendal. It was unclear whether all the damage would be repaired by rush hour.
For stranded passengers, Deutsche Bahn made overnight trains available in several German cities on Thursday evening. According to a railway spokeswoman, corresponding trains have been used in Berlin, Bremen, Frankfurt am Main, Göttingen, Hamburg, Hanover and Kassel.
Booked train trips can be postponed. The train said that anyone who had booked a train ticket for Friday could postpone the journey to a later date. “The train connection is cancelled. The ticket is valid for the journey to the original destination, even with a changed route. Seat reservations can be canceled free of charge.”
Hesse
Deep “Lambert” brought heavy rain, wind and hail over Hesse. At Waldeck am Edersee, some roofs were covered, the police said. A number of cellars were full and many trees fell over, some on parked cars. There is hail damage to buildings.
In the meantime, the operation of buses and trains had been completely stopped in Kassel. This measure in the afternoon was chosen for safety reasons, the Kasseler Verkehrsgesellschaft (KVG) announced. “Stormy gusts, extreme rainfall and hailstorms, for example, led to flooded roads and tracks, branches and trees that fell onto tracks or overhead lines and blocked the routes, according to the KVG. Some lines are now running again.
North Rhine-Westphalia
Some heavy rain and thunderstorms reached North Rhine-Westphalia in the early evening. At times, severe weather warnings were in effect.
In Duisburg there were at least 420 fire brigade operations during the night. It was a flooded basement, flooded streets and fallen trees, said a spokesman. Some people were locked in their vehicles and had to be freed. Several streets in the city of Duisburg were no longer passable due to flooding.
As the Märkischer Kreis police reported, basements were full, streets were flooded and gullies were pushed up. In Bad Berleburg in the district of Siegen, golf ball-sized hailstones rained down from the sky. However, the low-pressure area was relatively small, so in other places people hardly noticed the storm.
In the district of Soest, the fire brigade reported more than 40 operations after heavy rain, especially in the district town of Soest. According to the information, it was mostly about water in basements and flooded streets. According to the local control center, firefighters in the Paderborn district went on 13 missions in and around Niederntudorf south of Paderborn because of water in the cellars.
Rhineland-Palatinate
Thunderstorms with heavy rain and wind also moved across Rhineland-Palatinate, initially in the Eifel, on the Ahr and in the Trier area. In the Westerwald, a tree fell on a car, the driver was slightly injured. Several trees also fell on the road in the Cochem-Zell district. The fire brigade has already responded to flooded basements.
In Neuwied, the heavy rain caused a rainwater retention basin under construction to overflow, which threatened to break. The fire brigade and technical relief organization pumped the 4,000 cubic meters out of the basin so that the street behind it would not be flooded. Residents were evacuated as a precaution.
Rescue workers sometimes describe dramatic operations. “During one operation, a tree fell on a moving car. During another operation, people had to be rescued from their cars in a flooded underpass,” said the fire and disaster protection of the Neuwied district. According to the Koblenz police headquarters, no one was injured in the vehicle with a fallen tree.
Streets were flooded in Kinheim on the Moselle and in Brücktal near Kelberg. The DWD has now lifted the severe weather warning for Rhineland-Palatinate.
Lower Saxony
In Braunschweig, the fire brigade counted a total of 2,000 emergency calls and 1,400 operations during the evening. Around 600 helpers from the fire brigade, THW and DRK were alerted not only from the city but also from the surrounding area to Braunschweig to help those affected. In the urban area, 60 liters/square meter fell within a short time. The result: flooded streets, overflowing cellars and underground car parks, stranded motorists and masses of water, some of which pressed into shops or offices.
According to their own statements, the police and fire brigade in Göttingen went on several missions, for example because the cellar was full. A concert by the British singer Sting in Lingen, Lower Saxony, was canceled.
Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia and Brandenburg
In the Harz district, numerous cellars were full. The Harz integrated control center spoke of countless operations in the evening, but was initially unable to name an exact number. A further focus of use in addition to the flooded cellars are trees on streets. A dpa reporter also reported on flooding, including in Blankenburg.
Bavaria
There were isolated thunderstorms in the evening over Bavaria. Hailstones the size of a golf ball fell in the Upper Bavarian valley. On the B2 near Roth, an Audi got off the road and got stuck in a tree in a wooded area. The driver suffered moderate injuries in the accident and was able to get out of the vehicle on his own.
Thunderstorms possible on Friday
However, the DWD has not yet given the all-clear for today – although the storms are slowly fading away. The DWD is still expecting heavy thunderstorms with heavy rain, hail and stormy gusts, especially in the east and south-east. During the day, from Western Pomerania to Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia, showery rainfall can be expected in some areas.
However, the low is slowly migrating to Poland, with the muggy warm air being replaced by cooler ones. From the afternoon and evening onwards, the rain will also gradually move eastwards. On crests, however, stormy gusts of up to 70 kilometers per hour can still be reached.