Hurricane gusts, storm surge and deaths – now “Zeynep” is moving on

Berlin Hurricane “Zeynep” has raged over Germany and caused a severe storm surge on the North Sea coast. According to the police, one person each died in North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony because of the storm, and the cause of another accident was unclear.

The hurricane should now move on to Russia via the Baltic States on Saturday, according to the German Weather Service (DWD). It should be temporarily calmer until Sunday, especially in the south and in the middle, again stronger gusts are expected – widespread with up to 60 kilometers per hour, on higher mountains also sometimes heavy gusts of wind up to 100 kilometers per hour. A hurricane gust of 143.3 kilometers per hour was measured in Büsum on Friday evening.

In the morning, the DWD lifted its warning of extreme gusts of wind on the North Sea. In Hamburg, the Elbe reached the St. Pauli level at around 5.30 a.m. on Saturday morning, 3.75 meters above the mean high water level, as reported by the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency. For the first time since 2013, the Hanseatic city was hit by a very severe storm surge with more than 3.5 meters above the mean high water level.

In the flooded warehouse district, the fire brigade rescued two men who were locked in their car early on Saturday morning. According to the police, the men were severely hypothermic and were taken to a hospital as a precaution.

Several dead from weather-related accidents

In the Lower Saxony municipality of Wurster Nordseekueste, a man had previously fallen from a roof and died during the storm. The 68-year-old tried to repair the damaged roof of a stable on Saturday night, the police said. He broke through the roof and fell about ten meters down.

According to the police, a driver died on Friday evening near Altenberge in North Rhine-Westphalia when he crashed his car into a tree lying across the road. The trapped 56-year-old died at the scene of the accident. The WDR had previously reported about it.

At about the same time, a man was driving his car in nearby Saerbeck when the vehicle overturned, according to the police. The 33-year-old also died at the scene of the accident. The cause of this accident was initially unclear.

Fire brigades and police reported numerous operations until Saturday morning, but initially there were only reports of fallen trees, objects flying around and damaged buildings. In Bremen, a 55-meter construction crane fell into an office building that was still under construction. “It looks devastating,” said a fire department spokesman. A truck driving past was also caught by the crane on Saturday night. However, the driver was not injured.

In Hamburg, parts of the facade of a four-storey residential building in the Eilbek district collapsed on Friday evening. A fire brigade spokesman said that a total of around 25 square meters of masonry fell off in the gable area.

In the ports of Emden and Wilhelmshaven, several tugboats had to secure the larger ships. They pressed the wind-prone ships against the pier, said a spokesman for the water police.

Deutsche Bahn stops traffic

Rail traffic in northern Germany and in the northern parts of North Rhine-Westphalia was also severely restricted on Saturday morning, as announced by Deutsche Bahn. Accordingly, there are no long-distance trains north of Dortmund, Hanover and Berlin or between Berlin and Halle (Saale)/Leipzig. Individual trains only run on the high-speed route between Cologne and Frankfurt. Regional transport is also canceled across the board. Extensive reconnaissance trips are required before resumption. Passengers can use their tickets booked for the period from Thursday to Sunday flexibly until February 27 or cancel free of charge if they postpone trips because of the storm.

In North Rhine-Westphalia, the Emmerich Rhine bridge is closed until further notice. The reason for this are fallen scaffolding parts that protrude into the roadway, the police said early on Saturday morning. In the north, the Fehmarn Sound Bridge, which connects the island of Fehmarn in the Baltic Sea to the mainland, was closed. Two trucks had overturned during the night. A driver was injured, a police spokesman said.

The North Sea island of Wangerooge lost about 90 percent of its beach in the storm. “There is hardly any sand over a distance of one kilometer,” said Wangerooges island mayor Marcel Fangohr on Saturday morning. The protective dunes in front of the drinking water protection area no longer had a revetment, which had to be replenished like the beach. Nevertheless, the storm ended lightly.

“Zeynep” also caused damage on Friday in other European countries: in the Netherlands, three people were killed by falling trees, including a cyclist. Britain also reported three fatalities. In Ireland, a man died as a result of the hurricane. In the north of France around 130,000 households were without electricity in the evening.

In the previous hurricane “Ylenia” at least three drivers in Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt died in weather-related accidents: Two were killed by falling trees, a third died when his trailer got into the oncoming lane in the storm and an accident occurred.

More on this: Experts: Winter storm “Ylenia” costs insurers 500 million euros