At least 13 people were killed in severe storms in the Mediterranean region and in Austria. Six people died on the French Mediterranean island of Corsica. In Tuscany, a man and a woman were hit by falling trees near Lucca and in the coastal town of Carrara. Storms also caused damage and flooding in other parts of France and Italy. Five people died in Austria and traffic in the south of the country came to a standstill.
For this Friday, the German weather service warns of heavy continuous rain in the south-east of the country, on the border with Austria there can also be extremely heavy continuous rain. Isolated strong thunderstorms are possible in north-eastern Germany.
On Thursday, gusts of wind swept over Corsica at a speed of more than 200 kilometers per hour. 45,000 households were temporarily without electricity. There were also storms and flooded streets in other parts of France, such as in Marseille. French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin visited the island of Corsica on Thursday evening. 20 people were injured, this is a preliminary balance sheet. French President Emmanuel Macron pledged support for the island and its residents. A crisis team was formed at Macron’s vacation spot on the Côte d’Azur in the evening.
A woman looks at what the storm left behind at the Sagone campsite in Corsica. Earlier, a tree fell on a bungalow, killing one person.
(Photo: Pascal Pochard-Casabianca/dpa)
There was a severe weather warning for northern Italy to South Tyrol and large parts of central Italy. Some people suffered injuries in the violent storms with more than 100 kilometers per hour and heavy rain, such as at a campsite in Marina di Massa, Tuscany, when trees fell there. Tuscany Regional President Eugenio Giani shared on Twitter a video from the coastal town of Piombino of a Ferris wheel being spun by strong winds. Other photos showed cars crushed by trees and devastated beaches.
In the northern coastal region of Liguria and in Tuscany, which is popular with holidaymakers, the fire brigade counted more than 150 operations by the afternoon. A violent storm also swept through the northern Italian lagoon city of Venice, knocking down umbrellas and tables in the streets. According to Ansa, pieces of the wall broke off the church tower at the famous St. Mark’s Basilica in the center. The civil defense convened a crisis team in the afternoon because of the storms in central and northern Italy.
“In many cases, our colleagues have to cut their way clear with a chainsaw”
As the police and Red Cross in Austria announced, 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, storm speeds of up to 139 km/h were measured on Thursday.
Several trees fell at a small bathing lake in St. Andrä in the state of Carinthia.
(Photo: Erwin Scheriau/dpa)
In Styria, Carinthia and East Tyrol, the trains were at times 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 on ORF. It could take days, if not weeks, to fix all the damage.
Warnings for southern Germany
After weeks of drought and severe forest fires, the German Weather Service (DWD) warns of locally strong, sometimes severe thunderstorms with heavy rain in the east and northeast for Friday. Occasionally there could also be hailstorms and gusts of wind. In the evening more shower and thunderclouds are expected from the west and north-west. Storms are also possible here.
According to previous information, the precipitation in the south of the country was not as heavy as feared on Friday night. The police and rescue workers in Upper Bavaria only occasionally reported flooded basements and flooded underpasses. After the long drought, the soil in some places could not absorb the water quickly enough, which is why the water could only run off superficially, a police spokesman said. In the night to Saturday it should be very cloudy from the Alps to the eastern low mountain ranges to Lusatia – thunderstorms and heavy rain are also possible here.