A woman was seriously injured when she was swept away by the water masses in Vienna’s Döbling district and pushed under a bus. The fire brigade had to lift the bus to free the 35-year-old woman. A driver had to be rescued from a car stuck in a flooded underpass a few metres away.
As the ORF reported, 110 liters per square meter fell in Vienna-Döbling – the highest summer value in the 152-year history of measurements at the Hohe Warte. The all-time record is 139 liters in May 1885. Images on social media showed a flooded train underpass in Gunoldstrasse. A user also shared a video from Vienna-Währing, which showed a geyser-like fountain of water coming out of a manhole cover.
At around 4:45 p.m., a woman fell in the bus stop area of Gunoldstrasse 10A and was carried away by the water on the sloping street. According to the Vienna Fire Department, she was pushed into a bus that was standing at the stop and was unable to get out on her own. Passers-by alerted the driver to the woman, whereupon the emergency services were called. The woman was treated by the emergency services and taken to a hospital in a critical condition.
According to ORF television, the S45 express train line, which runs through northwest Vienna, was also interrupted between Hernals and Heiligenstadt because the tracks were flooded. In addition, on Saturday afternoon the trains could no longer reach the Franz Josefs station in Vienna-Alsergrund, which is important for connections to the northern outskirts. Because a signal box had failed, the trains only ran from or to Klosterneuburg. Two tram lines were also interrupted in Vienna-Währing because a branch had fallen on the overhead line.
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Image: unknown (CITY OF VIENNA|PROFESSIONAL FIRE DEPARTMENT VIENNA)
The heavy rain also led to numerous deployments for the professional fire brigade. According to the ORF, there have been 220 storm deployments since 4 p.m. The city was affected very unevenly by the storm. The Unterlaa weather station in Vienna-Favoriten measured just 0.3 litres of rainfall.
