Due to heavy rainfall, the A96 in the Landsberg am Lech district was flooded and had to be closed for several hours. At times on Wednesday evening, the water was knee-deep on the road in the direction of Munich, the police reported. Even after the rain had stopped, the water continued to flow over a side slope onto the road at the Schöffelding junction. A car got stuck in the water and had to be towed away.
Flooding also occurred on the road in the direction of Lindau. However, traffic was still able to be diverted onto the hard shoulder. Overall, there were significant traffic disruptions in the area and a traffic jam of almost eleven kilometers.
:A village seeks ways out of the state of disaster
Zusum has been destroyed by flooding like no other place in Bavaria, and the pungent smell of leaked heating oil is still in the air. The residents are facing financial ruin and are asking themselves: Who is going to pay for all this?
Firefighters took care of draining the water. The road, which was heavily contaminated with mud and dirt, was then cleaned. The road was finally reopened at around 11 p.m.
The emergency services had to rescue several people because they had driven their vehicles into such flooded areas. For example, the emergency services were called to a flooded underpass in the Augsburg district of Spickel where a driver was unable to get any further. However, he had already managed to free himself from the situation by the time the emergency services arrived.
Climate change made flooding in southern Germany more likely, according to DWD
According to an analysis, the probability of such heavy rainfall as has been occurring in southern Germany since the end of May has already increased significantly in the wake of the climate crisis. Instead of the previous average of about every 42 years, such rainfall is now to be expected in the region about every 30 years, according to the Potsdam Regional Climate Office of the German Weather Service (DWD). If global temperatures are two degrees warmer in the future, it is to be expected that comparable events will occur in the area on average every 23 to 25 years. The mathematical uncertainties in these figures are, however, quite large.
Heavy rainfall led to flash floods and inundations in southern Germany between May 30 and June 3. Record rainfall was measured locally in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, with the Danube and Neckar catchment areas particularly affected, according to the DWD.