Interview – Landesrat: “Every euro invested was worth it”


The “Krone” met Provincial Councilor Josef Schwaiger on Sunday afternoon in Mittersill and spoke to him about the flood situation after a reconnaissance flight.

Mr. Landesrat, how do you assess the situation at the moment?

In fact, it was more than a 100-year flood. We have been in an overload area for some time. 1.7 million cubic meters of retention basins were full within two hours. There was extensive flooding, but mostly in the planned area. However, it was not planned in the Stuhlfelden and Uttendorf area. In any case, we have reached the limit.

Can the damage already be roughly estimated?

Some of them are considerable, especially in the Oberpinzgau between Krimml and Mittersill as far as Neukirchen. With the exception of Wald im Pinzgau. The damage is certainly in the millions, I estimate in the low double-digit million range. During the reconnaissance flight we could see that side roads, cycle paths and numerous smaller bridges were destroyed. The railway line of the Pinzgau Bahn was also washed away, the tracks were literally swept away.

There were no dead, not even injured. Can one actually speak of a miracle?

It actually went like the script. According to the plans, every euro invested in the protection has paid off. Without the construction work, large parts of the population would have irretrievably lost their living space. Climate change is definitely there.