Austria Buried Today - Snow Storm, Floods Like a Tsunami Destroys Vienna

the flood situation in Austria is getting worse authorities have declared the whole of lower Austria a disaster area and a reservoir is in danger of overflowing other countries are also continuing to battle against the masses of water I in Germany's neighboring countries affected by severe flooding they there is still no easing of the situation in sight as the state Governor Johanna mck Lightner told the ORF the situation here has become even more serious in addition meteorologists are expecting further heavy rainfall lower Austria is the region worst affected by the current storms the state which surrounds the capital Vienna is home to around 2 million people there were almost 4 ,500 fire service operations there during the night in some communities the fire service had to rescue people who were trapped in their homes during the night rail traffic suspended on numerous routes according to the Austrian news agency AA numerous towns were no longer accessible by land people living on streets near the river in several communities were asked to leave their homes the de decaration of a disaster area gives authorities expanded powers for example to order evacuations the Wald vle around 120 km Northwest of Vienna the ottenstein reservoir on the Camp River is expected to overflow during the course of the day according to calculations by the lower Austrian energy supplier EVN the storage capacity of the ottenstein reservoir in the wal vdle will be exhausted reports the URF on Sunday morning discharge from the lake were recorded on the scale of a 30-year flood traffic has been suspended on numerous railway lines in the country in Vienna some Subway Lines have only been operating with restrictions since early morning the water levels and rivers in lower Austria and parts of Upper Austria were causing concern due to the Rain the storm was causing problems for emergency services in steria we have already registered more than 300 storm related operations since Friday said Thomas Meyer from the steran state fire brigade Association on Saturday afternoon oh the focus is on removing trees that have been knocked down by the strong storm blocking roads or causing damage to buildings or other infrastructure and power lines the storm operations were concentrated primarily on the fire brigade areas of gram bang we eyes and harbur in parts of Eastern and upper steria and the Eastern outskirts of grass the power Supply was temporarily affected Fallen trees were the [Music] cause in the evening more than 10,000 households were without power and more than 100 Transformer stations were out of service reported energent at styr Mark the repairs were like a sopian task it's an up and down process every time one station is repaired others fail due to storm damage Setter haries spokesman for energy styr mark all employees are on standby until at least Monday unfortunately local hurricanes make the work very dangerous and there is no sign of the situation being defused that's why it is not possible to predict exactly when every household in steria will be supplied with electricity again the north of Graz and the surrounding area as well as the districts of Weis and voitsberg remain storm hotpots throughout the day in in the grz area alone 12 fire brigades were called out to rescue trees since 3:45 a.m. luckily no one has been injured so far reports Regional press spokesman Herbert buchgraber wind speeds of more than 100 kmph were measured on the shackle in Grass the professional fire brigade had to respond to 50 operations within 24 hours there were also operations in the communities of gist soding KAC and in salag grabin in Western steria and fire departments in the voitsberg district have been called out 12 times on Saturday fortunately the damage is limited at the moment says District fire department spokesman hendrik wolf in contrast to the previous days heavy rain and wind are mainly forecast for the install Valley with snow only falling at higher altitudes such as in ramso and dostein the dostein road was therefore closed on Saturday afternoon the cable car companies have taken precautions mainly because of the wind and have suspended operations for the day the cable cars on pleni powen and the torn cable car on Houser cabling are closed on Saturday the docin cable car will not be running until Sunday inclusive both the rburg cable car in ramso and the wildberg modern will remain closed until Wednesday the schladming dostein tourist Association informs the connection between treein and hoen torn the B13 is also closed for safety reasons until Sunday evening this was announced by trebin mayor clous Emer Herm and the population will be kept informed the b138 the pyhrn passroad between lien and kirchdorf Upper Austria was also closed in both directions on Saturday afternoon the Wei district is also battling with storm damage in birkfeld for example the fire brigade has already had to remove several Fallen trees from the streets and a house is also said to have been hit by a tree we will make sure that we always have one or two standby groups says Commander fron rofer looking ahead to the rest of the weekend at the moment the operations can still be carried out well but we hope that it won't be anymore and flowing a number of Fallen trees also had to be removed several fire departments in the hartburg district fire brigade Association were called out to deal with Fallen trees and blocked roads the strong wind also left its mark on the harburg Parish Church our Tower cross was massively bent says Pastor Joseph Risinger according to the fire department there is no immediate danger but a cordoned off area has been set up around the church for safety reasons a decision on how to proceed will be made when the weather improves meanwhile kerus has set up a contact point for those affected by the extreme weather across Austria this is where people can turn if they need immediate help in the past few days katus has already prepared extensive Aid measures in order to be able to help people in affected communities quickly heavy rain and snowfall have severely affected Road and rail traffic in Austria the train connection between the winter sports and Spa Resorts of bad Hoff gastin and bad gtin in the state of salsburg will probably have to remain closed until Monday afternoon the Austrian Railway company BB announced the Austrian Automobile Club amtc stated that there were serious traffic disruptions on several roads in the country due to Fallen trees according to BB the torn Railway line between bad Hoff Gast d and bad Goin was not passable because the heavy snow load had caused trees to protrude into the track area train traffic between Friedberg and steria and a Spang Market in lower Austria had to be suspended due to a landslide due to heavy snowfall and storms sections of the route in the state of Upper Austria were also closed as a precaution due to the disruption the railway company lifted the train restriction for all national International and night train tickets with validity dates up to Sunday on Thursday the BB had already warned of deviations and delays in train services and called on passengers to postpone non-urgent Journeys to another time