- Severe storms claimed five lives in Austria and paralyzed traffic in the south of the country.
- Several trees fell on a small bathing lake in the state of Carinthia on Thursday.
- Two girls aged four and eight died and eleven people were injured, some seriously.
- A total of eight people have died on the French Mediterranean island of Corsica and in Tuscany in Italy.
In Gaming, Lower Austria, three other people were killed by a tree. According to the state meteorological service ZAMG, storm speeds of up to 139 km/h were measured on Thursday.
In Styria, Carinthia and East Tyrol, the trains were temporarily at a standstill after the power supply for rail traffic failed due to the storm, as announced by the Austrian Federal Railways. Due to the gusts of wind, dozens of trees near Griffen fell on the southern autobahn (A2) in Carinthia. There were also power outages in tunnels. The important transport link to Italy was closed in several places for clean-up and repair work.
Legend:
A fallen tree at St. Andräer See in the Austrian state of Carinthia resulted in the death of two children.
KEYSTONE/APA/ ERWIN SCHERIAU
In Styria, tens of thousands of households were cut off from the power supply because high-voltage lines and 2,000 transformer stations were damaged. “In many cases, our colleagues have to cut their way to the repair work with a chainsaw,” said a spokesman for Energie Steiermark to the ORF broadcaster. It could take days, if not weeks, to fix all the damage.
Tens of thousands of homes in Corsica without electricity
Storms also caused damage and flooding in several parts of France and Italy. As France’s Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced on a visit to Corsica on Thursday evening, six people died in the storm on the island. 20 people were injured, this is a preliminary balance sheet.
French President Emmanuel Macron pledged support for the island and its residents. A crisis team was formed at Macron’s vacation spot on the Côte d’Azur in the evening, with the participation of Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne.
Legend:
French President Emmanuel Macron on the Côte d’Azur with Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne.
Reuters/Christophe Simon
Gusts with a speed of more than 200 kilometers per hour had swept across Corsica. 45,000 households were temporarily without electricity. There were also storms and flooded roads in other parts of France, such as in Marseille.
Italy: Tuscany, Liguria and Venice affected
In Tuscany, a man and a woman were hit by falling trees near Lucca and in the coastal town of Carrara, several media reported. There was a severe weather warning for the north of the country to South Tyrol and large parts of central Italy. Some people suffered injuries in the violent storms with more than 100 kilometers per hour and heavy rain, such as at a campsite in Marina di Massa, Tuscany, when trees fell there.
Tuscany Regional President Eugenio Giani shared on Twitter a video from the coastal town of Piombino of a Ferris wheel being spun by strong winds.
In the northern coastal region of Liguria and in Tuscany, the fire brigade counted more than 150 operations by the afternoon.
A violent storm also swept through the northern Italian lagoon city of Venice, knocking down umbrellas and tables in the streets. According to Ansa, pieces of the wall broke off the church tower at the famous St. Mark’s Basilica in the center. The civil defense convened a crisis team in the afternoon because of the storms in central and northern Italy.