Status: 07/14/2021 7:49 am
Flooded streets, full cellars: In parts of Germany, heavy rain creates chaotic conditions. In the Bavarian Hof the disaster applies, in Saxony a person is missing.
Heavy rains in parts of southern and eastern Germany as well as in North Rhine-Westphalia caused flooding and numerous fire services. The disaster was declared in the Upper Franconian district of Hof. According to the German Weather Service, up to 80 liters fell from the sky there within twelve hours, and there were also thunderstorms. The police and fire brigade have deployed here more than 200 times. According to the District Office, Naila, Selbitz, Köditz, Feilitzsch and Trogen were particularly affected.
Around 1000 emergency services and 140 members of the Technical Relief Organization (THW) had to pump water from basements and procure sandbags. In the region, even the emergency number 112 could not be reached immediately due to the large number of callers in individual cases, as the Bavarian Red Cross (BRK) announced. The rescue service supply is guaranteed at all times. According to the police, there were road closures in the entire district due to flooding and a traffic accident with two slightly injured people. In addition, there were full cellars, fallen trees and occasional power outages.
Man missing in Saxony
In the Saxon town of Jöhstadt in the Erzgebirge district, a flash flood tore a man with it. Residents in the Steinbach district had tried to secure their property against a river overflowing its banks. The man was carried away. All rescue attempts by the neighbors failed. The fire brigade’s search was initially unsuccessful. The main street in Steinbach was impassable for about an hour as a result of the heavy rain, said the police.
Parts of Baden-Württemberg were also hit by heavy rains. Numerous trees fell in Mannheim and the surrounding area, streets were flooded. In the Mannheim districts of Lindenhof and Wallstadt, trees fell on parked vehicles as a result of the storm and damaged them, according to the police. However, nobody was injured.
Several streets were flooded and had to be partially closed. Occasionally, cars were damaged by the ingress of water and had to be towed away. In Hockenheim, too, two cars had to be recovered, the drivers of which had tried unsuccessfully to drive through a street with heavy water accumulation. In Heidelberg, water on the streets temporarily blocked traffic.
NRW also affected
The consequences of the storm were also felt further north in Germany. In Düsseldorf, the fire brigade deployed around 180 times. In the night of Wednesday, the cellars were full and streets were flooded, said the fire department.
In the North Rhine-Westphalian town of Hagen, heavy rain also caused flooded streets and full cellars. According to the police, hundreds of emergency calls were made to the fire department during the night. “People are desperate,” said the spokesman, referring to the multitude of full cellars in the city. In addition, due to the flooded streets, vehicles began to slide in places. So far there have been no reports of injuries. Mud masses were also washed onto roads from slopes, so many districts were not passable. Due to debris on the streets, even police and fire service vehicles cannot get through in some districts, the spokesman continued.
The German Weather Service is expecting heavy continuous rain until Saturday. The most violent increases in water levels are expected on Thursday night and Thursday.