A storm with violent gusts of wind caused considerable damage in a number of places in Bavaria on Wednesday night, and several people were injured. The police and fire brigade worked continuously for hours to remove fallen branches and trees from streets and demolished vehicles or to secure covered roofs. Rail traffic may be affected for several days. Lightning strikes triggered several fires, and there were also power outages. The operations centers reported far more than 1000 operations within a few hours. Even after the thunderstorm had subsided on Wednesday, the railway companies were still struggling with numerous delays and train cancellations.
Swabia in particular was badly hit by the storm after the heat on Tuesday. In Biessenhofen near Marktoberdorf in Ostallgäu, the strong winds tore down a circus tent late on Tuesday evening. Two women, 25 and 33, were attempting to secure the tent with extra ropes when a gust of wind tore the tent apart, with the two women underneath. Both came to a hospital with serious injuries, the damage to property could not initially be quantified.
In Weyarn, Upper Bavaria, a horse fled from a farm in panic from the storm and ended up on Autobahn 8. Since the animal was seriously injured during the escape, the horse had to be euthanized on the highway. In Friedberg near Augsburg, the historic city festival had to be canceled prematurely. Visitors were taken to safety at a school and parish center, the city reported.
Fallen trees on the tracks and damaged overhead lines caused massive problems in rail traffic on Wednesday morning. In the greater Allgäu area, Deutsche Bahn (DB) reported that train journeys had been largely discontinued. There were also impairments on the routes of the Bavarian Regiobahn and the Southeast Bavarian Railway.
The much-used route from Munich to Augsburg and on to Ulm was also paralysed. “This route is currently closed and not passable until further notice,” said the railway company Go-Ahead, which operates the regional trains there, in the morning with the customers. The ICE trains from Munich to Stuttgart could not drive either, the trains were diverted via Nuremberg. The long-distance route from Munich via Lindau on Lake Constance to Switzerland was initially also no longer usable. The DB announced that the repairs on the two long-distance routes could last until Wednesday evening. The private railway company Go-Ahead announced that the repair of the affected regional routes could even take several days.
Tens of thousands of households also had no electricity after the storm. The network of Bayernwerk Netz GmbH in the regions of Upper Bavaria and East Bavaria was affected, the company reported. The reason for the failures were lightning strikes in several substations.