On Friday, the clean-up work will continue after Thursday’s severe thunderstorm. Around 400 fire brigades have been deployed throughout Styria since Thursday afternoon, which is more than half of all Styrian fire brigades. Around 5000 firefighters work on the 1400 storm operations. “With the tireless diligence of our teams, we rushed from scene to scene and, despite the greatest physical exertion, worked late into the night to eliminate dangers and limit further damage,” said state fire director Reinhard Leichtfried, summarizing what his comrades had done in the last few hours .
The intensity of the storm surprised even experts. “It was a very significant storm event in the course of a massive line of thunderstorms that stretched across quite large parts of Styria,” says Christian Pehsl from Zamg. Wind gusts of 140 km/h were measured in Neumarkt, 124 km/h in Mooslandl, 119 km/h in Leoben, 112 km/h in Kapfenberg and 112 km/h in Köflach and left their mark.
Power poles overturned
“The Styrian energy network suffered the greatest damage in 50 years,” reported LH Christopher Drexler at a press conference. He and his deputy Anton Lang thanked all emergency services for their work. The storms in the Zeltweg area (Styria) damaged power poles of a 220 kV line connecting the Obersielach and Hessenberg substations. The Zeltweg substation is likely to fail for up to four weeks, an alternative supply was organized. According to Energie Steiermark, 85,000 households across Styria were temporarily without electricity, at the beginning of the night there were still 40,000. This number was reduced to 6,500 by Friday morning. The main areas of damage were in the side valleys of the Mur Valley and western Styria. In total, more than 150 fitters from all regions were on duty during the night for repair work. Raise the net finely – from top to bottom. But: “The thunderstorms that are now gathering again will slow down the deployment,” Harnik feared on Friday morning.
“Almost came out of nowhere”
The storm was of this dimension “almost out of nowhere, that was not visible on the weather maps in the network control room of Energie Steiermark,” says Harnik. He himself has been with the company for around 20 years now, “I’ve never experienced anything like it”. The destruction is sometimes wild and dramatic, “it will take weeks for all repair work to be completed, but that doesn’t mean that households will now be without electricity for weeks, so aggregates and replacement services are also being used”.
Trains stand still
On top of that, there was a widespread failure of the 110 kV traction power supply for Carinthia and Styria. According to the ÖBB, many of the disruptions were resolved overnight. According to the ÖBB, the disruptions in the railway network will continue on the southern railway until Monday. There is currently no train between Leoben and Friesach or St. Michael to Wald am Schoberpass, long-distance trains from Vienna to Italy will be diverted via Salzburg, long-distance trains from Vienna to Villach or from Graz to Selzthal will be canceled on Friday.
Local transport is available for passengers from Graz to Selzthal. Rail replacement services were set up between Leoben and Friesach and between St. Michael and Wald am Schoberpass. From the expected start of operations on Saturday, these routes will be single-track again (double-track probably from Monday with the start of operations). According to the ÖBB, there are also currently obstacles in freight transport and possibly longer transport times. Disorders in detail at this point.
roof on bus
In the Graz area, there were maximum gusts of 90 km/h (measured in street gear). In the St. Peter district, parts of the roof of a supermarket crashed onto a bus. Luckily there were no injuries, one passenger suffered a shock. In the Petersgasse, on the other hand, gusts of wind knocked over a scaffolding, as a result, lines 6 and 64 were temporarily stopped.
In the district of Leoben, the damage caused by the storm is only gradually becoming visible. Several residents of Hinterlobming and St. Stefan are still waiting for the power supply. A video by an eyewitness from Knittelfeld shows the storm covering a flat roof.
Dead in Carinthia and Lower Austria
The situation in Carinthia in the Wolfsberg district was particularly tragic: a short but extremely violent thunderstorm with gusts of wind uprooted several trees in the St. Andrä leisure center. The consequences are fatal: two girls were killed and several people were injured, some seriously.
Three people also died in Lower Austria in the afternoon. they were hit by a falling tree.
Hikers got into mountain distress
In Spielberg, one is alarmed in view of renewed thunderstorms around the MotoGP event at the Red Bull ring. The local fire brigades have to manage both events.
The police evacuated day-trippers from the Ingeringsee area (Gaal municipality) by air. “A total of 25 people (including five small children) and three dogs were freed from the alpine emergency with the dragonfly,” the police said in the evening. Another 34 people were trapped in the Reicherhube area. The Bischoffeld fire brigade cleared the way and then transported the people to their armory. Four forest workers were able to get themselves safely out of the danger area via hiking trails.
Several hikers were in mountain distress due to the sudden storm. Seven people were surprised by the storm on the summit of the Kreiskogel (Seetal Alps). Twelve members of the mountain rescue service in Judenburg, two alpine police officers and six army employees climbed up to the people in distress and escorted them safely to the mountain rescue service hut. A little later there was also a mountain rescue operation for three hikers in the Rottenmanner Tauern. There, 25 emergency services with search dogs climbed for around three hours through very steep terrain to the Dreispitzengrat (2449 meters). The victims were hypothermic and exhausted, one woman injured.
Freeway barriers, trees fell on the road
As a result of the storm, numerous trees were uprooted on the A2 and fell onto the roadway, and soil was also washed onto the roadway.
The Pack (A 2) chain of tunnels was closed in both directions due to a power failure. Then the traffic was channeled through the tunnel by Asfinag employees. After the road was free again around 10 p.m., a serious traffic accident occurred in the early hours of the morning: A semi-truck crashed into the portal of the Assingber Tunnel. The freeway was closed again.
The A 9 Pyhrnautobahn was also affected – a tree fell onto the roadway at the Gleinalm toll booth. The A 9 was meanwhile blocked in the direction of Graz. Between Kalwang and Treglwang, fallen trees also blocked the road to the north.
There are still numerous roadblocks on Friday. Among them: the B114a between St. Georgen ob Judenburg and Pöls, the B 116 between Leoben and St. Michael, the L 405 (Vorauer Straße) between Miesenbach and Birkfeld due to clean-up work, the L537 Zeltwegerstraße between Zeltweg and Weißkirchen. The Gesäusestraße remains in the Ennstal (B 146) will be closed until Friday.
>>>Current information on road closures can be found here.