Status: 07/17/2021 11:15 p.m.
After heavy rain from storms, roads in Saxon Switzerland are flooded and some places are no longer accessible. The railway line via Bad Schandau to the Czech Republic is interrupted.
Extreme rainfall, sometimes more than 100 liters per square meter, has led to flooding in Saxon Switzerland. The district office of Saxon Switzerland-Eastern Ore Mountains announced in the evening. Neustadt, Sebnitz, Bad Schandau, Reinhardtsdorf-Schöna and Gohrisch are particularly affected. The situation center of the Ministry of the Interior in Dresden announced that the situation was “tense, but manageable.”
Again MDR reported, according to the mayor Peter Mühle, all parts of the municipality with the exception of Rückersdorf are affected by the effects of the flood in Neustadt – especially the town of Polenz. It was only blocked selectively in the afternoon, but is now completely sealed off and is impassable. The disaster alarm was triggered in good time and the local authorities had warned the population. This prevented worse things from happening.
“Heavy floods to be expected”
The district office urged to avoid cellars, underground garages and underpasses. In addition, flooded streets and paths could pose great dangers. The water level rises are comparable and partly even stronger than in August 2010. According to the state flood center, alert level 4 was exceeded in the evening at the Neustadt 1 an der Polenz gauge. In the lower reaches of the Kirnitzsch, the Sebnitz and the Lachsbach there was an “extreme rise in water level”. “Heavy floods are to be expected,” warned the flood center.
The railway line between Bad Schandau and Dečin in the Czech Republic is currently closed. “Long-distance trains end and begin in Dresden Hauptbahnhof”, informed Deutsche Bahn on the Internet. In long-distance traffic, the Hamburg-Berlin-Dresden-Prague connection is affected. A railway spokeswoman assured the dpa news agency that there were no more travelers on the open road. The disruption is expected to last until Sunday afternoon.
Because of the closure, there were also train cancellations in local transport. Replacement traffic by buses could not be set up because of the difficult weather-related road conditions, it said. Sections of the S1 Meißen-Dresden-Bad Schandau / Schöna and U28 Dečin-Bad Schandau-Rumburk were affected.