This weekend, Austria was hit hard by a severe storm, flooding a large village near Graz on Saturday. The worst of it hit the people living in Deutschfeistritz.
Within minutes, the water rose quickly, overflowing the narrow stream bed in Deutschfeistritz and flooding the city center. Cars were swept away, getting stuck between houses. Many people had to be rescued. The district authorities declared a state of disaster. A friend of mine lives in Deutschfeistritz and called me that evening. She couldn’t reach her apartment, and firefighters had to bring her home by boat. Luckily, her apartment is a bit higher up, so it wasn’t flooded.
Cars trapped in the narrow streets were washed away with people still inside. She told me people were screaming for help, but rescuers had a hard time reaching them. They finally managed to lower a ladder from a nearby building to help people climb out of their cars. The scenes were truly terrifying.
In Graz, the Andritz and Mariatrost districts were badly affected, especially around the streams. A civil defense alert was raised, and sirens blared everywhere. All day Saturday, alarms were sounding, and at first, I had no idea what was going on. Then I got the first pictures and videos from another friend who lives nearby. I couldn’t believe it. It’s only 10 minutes away from me. A debris avalanche even triggered near the highway and I began to realize that I also live on the hill and an avalanche can trigger here too. Two years ago a severe storm caused trees to fall onto our roof and almost hit the balcony. Part of our roof was destroyed. The scariest thing is that summer has only just begun, but we are already witnessing such disasters. What will the rest of the summer bring?
On the other side of the city where I live, the Mura River flows. Yesterday, I went for a walk to see how high the river had risen. I haven’t seen it like this in a long time. If the rain continues, the river might flood my town too.
On Saturday, my husband and I talked about going to watch the storm cell approaching Graz. Since I wasn’t feeling well, we decided to stay home. It’s a good thing we did because we would have been stuck on the freeway in the middle of the storm and heavy hail. Some parts of the highways are still closed because they haven’t been cleared yet.
Look at the video:
https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/europa/oesterreich-unwetter-104.html
Parts of Burgenland, near the Hungarian border, were also flooded. The most worrying part now is that tornadoes are starting to appear. Last week, a tornado hit the middle of Graz, and another one appeared on Saturday. We’re not used to having tornadoes here, especially not in the city. With the rain still pouring down, we can only wonder what the next few days will bring.
https://www.heute.at/s/tornado-touchdown-in-oesterreich-video-zeigt-alles-120041452
The pictures and videos tell the story better than words.
It’s heartbreaking that last year severe floods devastated Slovenia and nearby villages, and now there are floods again where I live. We can only wait and see what other disasters this summer will bring.
Good luck to everyone trying to save their homes, and thank you to all the volunteers helping those in need. We often don’t realize how much firefighters do for us, free of charge. Compassion for others still exists, and we should be grateful to be surrounded by such amazing people.
(Some of the pictures I got from my colleagues, who gave me permission to publish them.)
“While natural disasters capture headlines and national attention short-term, the work of recovery and rebuilding is long-term.” Sylvia Mathews Burwell
With love, @tinabrezpike ❤️
Heartbreaking:/
Sad, how the nature can destroy the whole city 😔
Hope everyone in your household is safe. 🙏🏻 Occurences like these are really devastating but hopefully everyone can recover soon.
path to recovery is pretty long, houses are full of water, streets, part of the highway is still closed. Poor people. You're working so hard to build your life and then the nature takes everything away :/ thanks for the comment and for stopping by
a very bad phenomenon. There are so many bad impacts from this weather, I hope the friends there remain strong and patient, I hope things get better🙏🙏
Is just sad what the nature can do to us, and we are powerless. You can only watch how your life is taken away. Thank u!
This was the forecast from https://www.estofex.org/ team. Terrifying.
Aftermath 😥
A terrible state of affairs indeed. Hopefully the damage is minimal and the recover fast. May everyone be safe and sound as well.
Luckily, no one was hurt. The damage is estimated to be about 5 million euros. But summer had just started. Last year in Slovenia, floods caused around 28 million euros in damage. We're not used to such disasters. It's sad, but once again, we saw how people come together during the hardest times. I want to say, this is it for this year, but it doesn't look good.
We have flooding in parts of Australia all the time and they're devastating. Sometimes we get flooding in one part of the country and terrible wildfires in others at the same time, Australia is so huge that weather can be completely different from one place to the next.
Oh wow, you're from Australia! The weather there sounds really intense. It's amazing how different the weather can be across such a big country. I saw on the news how devastating the wildfires are. With such a large area burning, you need a lot of people to save what they can. I remember seeing the terrible fires and how people were trying to save kangaroos. It broke my heart to hear how many animals died. It's impossible to save them all. Nature can be so cruel.I'm not sure if I'll ever visit Australia. Plane tickets are expensive, and you guys have some really creepy small animals. I've seen too many videos of snakes in houses, in toilets, or around the house with lots of spiders. I'm not sure how I'd go to the toilet at night with the chance of a snake being inside, waiting for you to sit down :))
Yep, Australia and yep it's a legit country. Maybe you'll visit someday but there's certainly some things that bite and sting: Snakes, spiders, crocodiles, sharks, irukandji...the list goes on.
Yes, and that's exactly why I have a problem visiting your country. Freaking spiders drive me crazy, crocodiles, not so much :) But first, I need to visit Cuba, my dream destination, and then everything else. I still have time. Plus, considering that I finished tourism school, it's time to take advantage of this profession, even though my job is not related to it. :)
I'd like to go to Cuba also, I'm intrigued and I've heard the people are really nice, mostly, and welcoming.