Travelers have to be prepared for rail traffic restrictions on Thursday.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin The storm over Germany led to severe restrictions in rail traffic on Thursday. In Thuringia, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, the train service is suspended until further notice, announced the Deutsche Bahn. Long-distance traffic came to a standstill in North Rhine-Westphalia.
In the course of the day, the German Weather Service (DWD) expected heavy gusts of wind and sometimes hurricane-like gusts in a strip across the middle to the east and north-east of Germany.
“Hundreds of employees are working to clear trees and other obstacles from the tracks, to repair overhead lines and to record damage,” said a spokeswoman. Passengers who want to postpone their trip due to the storm can redeem their booked ticket immediately up to and including seven days after the disruption has ended.
For Thursday afternoon and evening, the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency warned of a storm surge in the North Sea and in the Weser and Elbe regions. The flood on the North Sea coast will be 1.00 to 1.50 meters and in the Weser and Elbe areas about 1.50 meters above the mean flood, it said. Further storm surges on Friday cannot be ruled out. The apex in Hamburg-St.-Pauli should be reached shortly after 6 p.m. on Thursday.
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In many places the fire brigades moved out because of fallen trees, fallen branches and parts of roofs. In the Bad Godesberg district of Bonn, a freight train collided with a fallen branch on the track during the night. The Berlin fire brigade declared a state of emergency weather. There have been dozen weather-related missions since the morning. In Hamburg-Ohlsdorf, two trees about 15 meters high fell on a car and a four-story apartment building. Nobody was injured.
In many places the fire brigades moved out because of fallen trees, fallen branches and parts of roofs.
(Photo: dpa)
The storm also caused initial damage in Bavaria. The police reported dozens of missions. Sometimes there were also power outages. In Düsseldorf, the fire brigade usually moved out because of loose branches, fallen trees or barriers at construction sites. The power went out in the morning in several places in the Palatinate and Koblenz.
In Thuringia, numerous facilities such as the Erfurt Zoo and the Suhl Zoo have been closed. Municipal cemeteries in Erfurt were also closed, so that planned burials and funeral services were canceled.
In the Harz mountains fell over numerous trees and blocked some roads, as the national park and the police announced. The state forests and the national park warned against entering forests. “Going into the forest now is absolutely irresponsible. Even when the storm has subsided, trees can still fall over at any time, ”warned Friedhart Knolle from the Harz National Park on Thursday morning.
The situation on the Brocken was already dramatic on Wednesday, said Knolle. Tourists in particular were irresponsible. Pictures from the summit showed children who were whirling around there and could no longer hold themselves, as well as adults with prams.
The DWD assumed heavy gusts of wind and sometimes hurricane-like gusts of up to 105 kilometers per hour. In the mountains there could even be hurricane gusts of up to 120 kilometers per hour. In the northern half of Germany, “short-lived tornadoes” are not excluded, it said. According to the DWD, the wind from the west should decrease again in the course of the afternoon. It’s getting cooler overall.
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