The violent storms over Carinthia are not abating! The civil defense alarm had to be triggered in the Treffen community, and in Arriach the signal for a civil defense warning also sounded at around 5:30 a.m. There is mortal danger! Lightning strikes and flooding also occurred in Upper Austria – and there could be further severe thunderstorms in Upper and Lower Austria on Wednesday.
The districts of Villach and Villach-Land in Carinthia were hit particularly hard. “Some communities in the area are no longer accessible by road!” reports the LAWZ. Landslides, floods and hail make roads and paths impassable and trees have fallen down. Now the army has to move out to help people who are locked up in those communities. “People are encouraged not to leave their houses and stay on the first floor if possible!” The danger from mudflows and raging streams is too great! “In 62 years I’ve never seen anything like it!” Mayor Klaus Glanznig is also been working for his community since 2 a.m.: “I’ve never seen anything like this in my whole life! Bridges have been washed away, the Pöllinger Bach has burst its banks and is flooding the streets! There is an incredible amount of flooding!” Incidentally, in Treffen it is the Pöllinger Bach, which comes from the Gerlitzen and led to an obstruction at a bridge in the town center over the B 98 in the area of the old tobacconist. This triggered the disaster in the center. Glanznig: “Despite a recently completed bed load barrier on the Gerlitzen slope. The 15,000 cubic meters were full within minutes.” It was still not possible to get an overview. “We hope no one was hurt! Some people have already been saved, others are still missing!” “The last time there was something like this was in 1946″”People sit in their houses without electricity and water and are completely cut off from the outside world, waiting for help. From the roundabout meeting the area is closed. Above, the helicopter circles over the valley. Cars were washed away, the small bridge in the wasteland was torn away, as was the Affritz electric power plant. Mudslides and heavy rainfall caused the Affritzerbach to burst its banks, something like that last happened in July 1946, my father often talked about it!” reports Heinz Rauter, a resident of Treffen triggered, because this community is also cut off from the environment. Mayor Gerald Ebner from Arriach: “Disaster, all streams have burst their banks, all roads have been torn away! Arriach is cut off from the outside world and unreachable. The civil defense alarm was triggered.” It is hoped that it will be possible to drive via Feldkirchen and the Teuchen in the medium term, but it is still not clear when. In the Hundsdorf district of Arriach, around 150 people have no drinking water supply because the pipe network was badly damaged. “All the emergency services that we have are on the move. Unfortunately, the paths to these communities are blocked!”, according to the LAWZ. Afritz, the gorge, Winklern and the wasteland are also affected. Turracher Strasse and Millstätter Strasse are closed in certain sections. In order to get the situation under control, a crisis management team has now been set up and the army informed. Because there is a risk of “mortal danger”! In addition to some roads, the rail network is also out of action. The tracks are flooded, an attempt is being made to set up a rail replacement service. Around 30 fire brigades, police helicopters, army mountain rescue, rescue, police helicopters on the move, as reported by the Klagenfurt flight operations center, has been a police helicopter over the affected areas on an exploration and evacuation tour since five o’clock. “We currently have no radio contact!” It says. But we are talking about people who have taken refuge on car roofs. Entire electric power plant torn away! In the gorge between Afritz and Einöde, a complete Kelag power plant would be torn away. Mayor Max Linder (Afritz), who was on duty with the fire brigade during the night: “The building in the gorge, right next to the B98, no longer exists. The turbines are lying around freely. It is unimaginable with what force the Arriacher Bach devastated the gorge.”
source site-12