A vehicle surrounded by fallen trees, a small settlement temporarily cut off or a primary school with its roof covered: a night of heavy thunderstorms took its toll on the emergency services in Upper Austria. There were 3,400 firefighters present. The power went out in 35,000 households.
It happened as the meteorologists predicted: On Friday evening the violent storm “Zoltan” raged over large parts of Upper Austria at speeds of about 100 km/h. The staff of the state fire department’s warning center was increased fourfold. It received about 300 calls in the hour before midnight alone.
Settlement cut off
The Floriani were mainly concerned with clearing traffic routes through fallen trees and covered roofs. In Wels, for example, the storm tore the roof off the gymnasium of a primary school. And in the municipality of Redleiten, a vehicle became trapped between fallen trees. Fortunately, the occupants were able to escape unharmed.
The situation in Hartkirchen was particularly dramatic: a small settlement there was cut off and inaccessible at night because several trees blocked the access roads.
35,000 households without electricity
The storm also caused power outages. At its peak around midnight, 35,000 households lost power. In the early morning hours, about 2,000 households were still without power. “We can’t go where we still have damage because it’s dark. “Safety simply comes first here,” Wolfgang Denk, spokesperson for Netz OÖ, told “Krone” in the morning.
There was no regional focus of the outages: “The entire state was affected,” Denk said. Not only did the strong wind cause trees to fall on power lines, but the heavy rain also contributed to the outages. Because the ground was so softened, more trees fell.
About 400 missions
In some cases, the emergency services also had to deal with broken power lines, damaged PV systems and various small fires. A total of 3,400 firefighters responded to approximately 400 missions at 2 a.m. Spread across the state, the Inn, Hausruck and Traunviertel were particularly affected. The municipality of Bad Ischl emerged as a hotspot.
Source: Krone
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