Storms flooded cellars and streets in several regions of Germany on Thursday. Parts of North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg were particularly affected.
In the evening there were still severe weather warnings from the German Weather Service (DWD) of severe thunderstorms with heavy rain and hail in parts of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. In addition to the flooding of cellars and streets, damage from hailstorms and local lightning damage can be expected, the DWD announced in Offenbach.
Cars get stuck in the water
In the Ruhr area, Autobahn 42 near Herne was flooded. Between the Herne junction and the Gelsenkirchen-Bismarck exit, numerous cars got stuck in the water, it was said on Thursday evening from the control center of the motorway police.
The section of the route has been closed. The police and fire brigade are in action with pumps, among other things, to monitor the situation and, if necessary, to take care of those stuck.
Roadway flooded: The A42 had to be closed in both directions near Herne Photo: Arnulf Stoffel / dpa
The fire brigade control center in Herne spoke of more than 50 missions in the evening. 130 people are deployed. According to the information, numerous cellars were full and several large exit roads were flooded.
Videos from Gummersbach showed masses of water flowing down a street. According to a WDR report, the rain in the Frömmersbach district triggered a gravel avalanche. The fire brigade was on duty. Local residents helped with shovels.
► In Bochum the fire brigade also had to be deployed in storm-related operations. Twice lightning had struck trees there that threatened to topple over. In the town of Fröndenberg an der Ruhr, which was badly hit by floods a few days ago, several cellars were again full.
► In Recklinghausen a motorway underpass was flooded. It has been completely banned. According to the fire brigade, there were eight storm-related missions in the city in the evening.
► In Bergisch Gladbach the fire brigade was on the road with 35 emergency services and 13 emergency vehicles at various locations. A brook burst its banks in the Sand district.
Full-flooded cellar in Eastern Bavaria
During thunderstorms, several cellars in Eastern Bavaria were full and trees fell on streets on Thursday. According to information from the integrated control center in Passau, the emergency services in the surrounding districts had been deployed 122 times for severe weather missions by early evening.
Emergency calls were most frequently received from the Rottal-Inn district (66). It was mostly about water damage, said a spokesman.
Roads in Baden-Württemberg flooded
In Baden-Württemberg, too, heavy rain sometimes led to chaos and traffic delays.
In Kraichtal in the Karlsruhe district, according to a city spokeswoman, many cellars were full on Thursday, several streets were flooded and partly covered with mud. Within a few minutes it was raining so hard that the water could no longer run off. The mayor of the community is on site and all fire departments in the community are on duty to pump out the water. The fire brigade’s control center (ILF) in the district had previously reported about a dozen missions.
On the roads between Karlsruhe and Waghäusel, visibility was severely restricted due to heavy rain. The police have not had to move out because of weather-related accidents, as a spokesman said.
.