Severe weather – strong thunderstorms with lots of rain in Switzerland – news

  • Heavy thunderstorms with a lot of rain fell in a short time on Thursday evening in several parts of Switzerland.
  • The Lötschental in Valais was hit hard, and there were power outages.
  • Contaminated drinking water: In Blatten in the Lötschental, the population is being asked not to drink the tap water temporarily. Even when it’s boiled.

The police advised to stay at home because of the risk of flooding. In the Valais Lötschental, the road between Wiler and Blatten was closed, as the Valais canton police wrote in the short message service Twitter in the evening.

There are no reports of injuries. There was a temporary power outage on the Fafleralp, the Gletscheralp and the Tellialp. However, it is now available again.

People should avoid bodies of water and streams, it said in the warning spread on Twitter. You should stay at home and limit internet and data usage. In the upper part of the valley there is “a power problem,” the police wrote. In the town of Blatten, the drinking water was also contaminated.

In the evening, SRF Meteo reported 32.6 millimeters of precipitation in Cevio in Ticino within six hours, 30.7 millimeters in Frutigen in the Bernese Oberland and 24.8 millimeters in Schüpfheim in the canton of Lucerne. In Ulrichen im Obergoms – the federal camp of the scouts takes place nearby – 24 millimeters of rain fell. Wind gusts of around 80 kilometers per hour and more were measured in Central Switzerland and Ticino.

Storms also in the USA


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It also rained heavily in the US state of Kentucky. There was flooding there. At least eight people were killed, the governor said. He fears that the death toll will continue to rise.

In parts of the affected counties in eastern Kentucky it will continue to rain, it is an ongoing natural disaster, the governor continued. He previously declared a state of emergency and spoke of one of the “worst and most devastating floods in Kentucky history.” In addition to the dead, hundreds of destroyed houses are expected.

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