Bavaria Flood: The city center of Berchtesgaden drowned

Heavy rains caused flooding in Upper Bavaria. Berchtesgaden is particularly affected. Tourists should avoid the area. Saxony also suffers from floods.

Streets inundated, landslides, homes evacuated and perhaps two people – after heavy rains, the Berchtesgadener Land region in Upper Bavaria declared a disaster on Saturday evening. About 130 people had to be brought to safety from their homes due to the floods. Among them are 80 people from a settlement in Schönau am Königssee who have been moved away due to “geological problems,” district manager Bernard Kern said Sunday in Bad Reichenhall. Kern did not say exactly what he meant by that.

It was not clear if the settlement would have to be closed for a longer period or if the ban could be lifted again soon. Kern said rail traffic between Bad Reichenhall and Berchtesgaden has been halted. The roads were also badly damaged.

Watch the scenes from Bavaria in the video above or here.

Currently 890 assistants are deployed in the Berchtesgadener Land area. District official Kern said there is now a lot of support from other districts. Local helpers have been in constant use since Saturday evening. A spokesperson for the Traunstein Integrated Control Center said the situation is dire. The water rose from the mountains, and at the same time the water level of the Ojjeh River rose.

Storm in Bavaria: Berchtesgadner Land has declared a disaster after heavy rains caused by flooding. (Source: Kilian Pfeiffer / dpa)

The places that were particularly affected were Berchtesgaden, Bischofshausen-Schönau am Königssee, Markschelenberg and Ramsau in the far southeast of Bavaria. There the river overflowed its banks in some places and flooded the streets. Slopes slipped. Rothenbuchner said individual homes should be disinfected. But at the moment no one is locked up in their home. So far, the basement was basically full.

District manager Kern said day travelers and day tourists should avoid the area in southeastern Bavaria. The hands of the emergency services will be full. Kern said rail traffic between Bad Reichenhall and Berchtesgaden has been halted.

Danger of a tidal wave in Oberstdorf

Meanwhile, firefighters have unblocked a mountain stream near Oberstdorf, where water has dangerously formed dams. A police spokesman said Sunday morning that the water was able to drain in a controlled manner, and there was no longer any danger.

At Stillachtal, the transverse wood has seriously clogged the water. If the natural barrier had suddenly loosened, the tidal wave would have been calculated in the direction of Oberstdorf.

The fire brigade erected concrete barriers in the country stadium south of central Oberstdorf (Oberallgäu region) for protection. They are supposed to divert potential water masses. About 60 firefighters are working, Vogler said. Some of them are located directly at the so-called Stelach Mountain Stream Stop.

two people died

Two people were killed in a flood zone in Upper Bavaria. Alexandra Rothenbuchner, a spokeswoman for the Berchtesgadener Land district office, said it was not yet clear if their deaths were related to the flooding. District Director Bernhard Kern (CSU) said Sunday morning at a press conference in Bad Reichenhall that the victim died of natural cause. This may also be related to the storm, Kern said.

“There are always incoming emergency calls,” a police spokesman in Rosenheim said. In the Berchtesgadener Land area all fire departments are required. “The situation is confusing,” the spokesman said. Federal roads were inundated or closed due to mudslides. Initially, the fire brigade of Rhett M. Winkle was also challenged in the neighboring district of Traunstein. There the situation calmed down during the evening. In the Berchtesgadener Land area, more rain was announced overnight.

Recording water levels in rivers – towing police cars

The media reported record levels of water in Aji – by 10 pm it was already about 3.75 meters. The pictures show streets turning into raging streams. People go knee-deep in water. Firefighters work every few hundred metres, an eyewitness reported. Tractors removed the rubble. Sometimes the height of the water reaches 50 cm.

At Chamerau in the Upper Palatinate, Roßbach overflowed its banks due to torrential rains. A police spokesman said one of the buildings was protected from the water by sandbags. In the entire area, there were five more fire services due to full basements or flooded streets.

In Passau, Bavaria, the water level in rivers continues to rise every hour. On Sunday, a spokeswoman said, as a precaution, police towed cars from car parks on the Danube. Residents failed to repair their cars despite flood warnings. “If we don’t drag them away, they will swim all the way to Austria,” the police spokeswoman said. According to the flood intelligence service, the Danube rose by about two meters to reach 7.80 meters over the course of Saturday. The water level in the lodge has risen from 3.30 to 5.40 meters in the past twelve hours.

Soder and Hermann visit the crisis zone

Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder and Interior Minister Joachim Hermann (both from the Christian Social Union) want to head to the flood zone in southeastern Bavaria on Sunday afternoon. The two politicians want to get an idea of ​​the situation in the flood-affected area. There will be a press conference at 4pm (live on t-online).

Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (Social Democratic Party) shared his sympathy with those affected on Twitter: “My thoughts are with concerned citizens and emergency services.” Hill canceled a campaign event in Traunstein in Upper Bavaria due to the flood situation.

Izar in Munich is also on the rise

After heavy rains in the Alpine region, there are also in Munich and the surrounding area Flood danger on the Isar River. On the Munich/Isar scale, reporting level 1 will be exceeded early Sunday afternoon, and reporting level 2 could also be exceeded briefly on Monday morning, the Bavarian flood news service announced on Sunday. Even on the Freising Scale, reporting level 1 in the early morning cannot be ruled out.

Reporting level 2 means flood warning and ‘flooding’. At reporting level 3, there is a flood warning in built-up areas.

Aboard Isar, a helicopter fire brigade was on Sunday as people were on an island in the middle of a raging river at the Flouchersteig River. A spokesman for the fire department said no one was in danger or injured.

The railway in Saxony has been closed

Heavy rains also caused torrential floods in parts of Saxony on Saturday. In Saxon Switzerland, many cities and municipalities are no longer accessible. Neustadt, Sebnitz, Bad Schandau, Reinhardsdorf-Schona and Gorech were particularly affected, the district office reported in the evening. “The situation is tense, but it can be controlled,” the Dresden Interior Ministry’s Situation Center said, at the request of the German news agency DPA.

On Sunday morning, the flood center in Saxony gave everything to the tributaries of the Upper Elbe. “With the decrease in rainfall from the night, the situation calmed down and the water flow in the rivers decreased significantly,” the experts said. Only at the Wesenitz level in Bischofswerda the zone’s alert level 1 has been reached. The water level has decreased significantly in the lower regions of Kernice, Lachbach and Wiesenitz.

Nothing is known about the wounded or the evacuees

According to the state’s flood center, it has rained more than 100 liters per square meter in 24 hours in the catchment area of ​​the Kerenice and Spenice rivers. In Lichtenhain-Mittelndorf it was 110 liters, in Weifa 104 liters. As a result, the water level in many rivers swelled rapidly. Alert level 4 was exceeded at Polenz, and there was a “sharp water level rise” in the lower reaches of Kirnitzsch, Sebnitz and Lachsbach. In the evening, experts warned that heavy flooding was expected.

The Dresden Regional Monitoring Center has reported more than 250 missions since the afternoon. In Saxon Switzerland, streets and cellars were flooded and cliffs slipped. She added that in addition to smaller rivers that were very distended, a large amount of water had made its way down the rapids. At the moment, nothing is known about casualties or major evacuations.

The water level in the Ness River has risen significantly

For large parts of Saxony, the German Met Office has warned of storms up to level 3 from 4 on Saturday until nightfall. As a result, many rescuers were deployed to other regions as well – for example in Eastern Saxony in the districts of Bautzen and Görlitz. There, too, torrential rain flooded streets and cellars. In addition, the water level in the Lusatian Neisse region has risen significantly. Alert level 4 was exceeded on the Zittau scale.

Problems of flooded basements and cellars have also been reported locally from West Saxony, for example in Hohenstein-Ernstthal, Oberlungwitz and Wüstenbrand. Some residents set up barricades to protect their homes.

The Kirnitzsch family swept wood and rubble on a bridge in Bad Schandau. (Source: Robert Michael / dpa)

After heavy rain, the railway between Bad Schandau and the Czech city of Decin was closed. Deutsche Bahn reported online on Saturday evening that “long-distance trains finish and start in the Dresden Hauptbahnhof”. In long-distance traffic, the Hamburg – Berlin – Dresden – Prague connection is affected. A railway spokeswoman confirmed to dpa late in the evening that there were no more passengers on the open road. The disruption is expected to continue until Sunday afternoon.

Because of the lockdown, trains on local transport have also been cancelled. It added that bus traffic could not be replaced due to the difficult road conditions associated with the weather. The S1 Meißen-Dresden-Bad Schandau/Schöna and U28 Decin-Bad Schandau-Rumburk divisions were affected.

The Austrian Halen river near Salzburg was also flooded after heavy rain. According to the police, the river swelled and turned into a torrent that evening. Rescue workers used boats and trucks to rescue people trapped in their homes. According to the fire brigade, there were no reports of missing, injured, or even dead people late in the evening. I read here More.