Severe thunderstorms and heavy rainfall caused many problems in the west and south of the Federal Republic on Tuesday evening. Flooded streets, cellars and tunnels led to a massive appeal to the emergency services, who also had to take action for fallen trees and power failures.
The German weather service expects the nuisance to decrease in the coming hours but does not rule out that the weather in the east and northeast will lead to further nuisance in the course of Wednesday.
In Frankfurt alone, emergency services had to respond more than 600 times on Tuesday evening after up to 45 litres of precipitation per square meter fell in some places. In addition, public transport came to a standstill in large parts of the city due to the rainfall, as a result of which, among other things, manhole covers were pushed up, and tunnels were no longer accessible due to a large amount of water.
Emergency services in Landshut in Bavaria were also inundated with calls about many uprooted trees and cars drifting through the streets. The thunderstorm passed over Landshut at the start of the fraught European Championship match between England and Germany, resulting in power outages and damage to oil tanks. “This was a thunderstorm that only happens once every five or ten years,” said Mirko Olzem of the local security services.
Much damage and nuisance were also reported in Bochum and Krefeld (North Rhine-Westphalia). The emergency services received thousands of reports, including from stranded motorists who could no longer get out of their vehicle due to the water.