Situation remains tense

Heavy rain again: Alarm in several municipalities

Clean-up operations, such as here in Grafendorf, are once again underway in several Styrian municipalities.

(Bild: Thomas Zeiler)

As feared, there was again heavy rainfall in Styria on Sunday afternoon. This time, the Hartberg-Fürstenfeld district, which was already a hotspot on Saturday, was particularly affected. Civil protection alerts were issued in eight municipalities. 

For a long time, no severe thunderstorms formed in the humid air on Sunday. In the late afternoon, however, there was heavy rainfall in Eastern Styria - in a region that, along with the one north of Graz, was already the hardest hit.

A civil protection alert was issued for eight municipalities: Vorau, Rohrbach, Grafendorf, St. Johann in der Haide, Rohr bei Hartberg, Neudau, Lafnitz and Burgau. The Provincial Warning Center advises extreme caution: the banks of bodies of water should be avoided, as should cellars - even if the rainfall subsides.

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In the evening, the Hartberg area fire brigade association took stock of the situation: more than 1500 firefighters were deployed to more than 500 incidents, and more than 200 vehicles from almost 90 fire departments were in action. The majority of the firefighters were able to return in the evening, but many continued to work tirelessly during the night. On Monday, three more disaster relief platoons from the fire department districts of Radkersburg, Deutschlandsberg and Voitsberg arrived to provide support.

St. Radegund also a disaster area
The entire Hartberg-Fürstenfeld district was officially declared a disaster zone on Saturday night. This also applies to the municipalities of Deutschfeistritz, Übelbach, Eggersdorf, Kumberg, Weinitzen - and recently also St. Radegund.

The Styrian fire departments are therefore still fully challenged. From Saturday to Sunday afternoon alone, almost 900 operations were dealt with, almost 250 fire departments were alerted and more than 2500 firefighters were deployed.