Thörl after the storm

No rest for helpers – and worries about new floods

Reporting on the floods in Thörl: tobacconist Ilse Nisevic and Manfred Lechner

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Peter Bernthaler)

The Upper Styrian municipality of Thörl is a disaster area. Unbelievable amounts of rain caused enormous destruction in the night to Wednesday. Much has already been removed, but there is still a lot to do. A local inspection by the "Krone".

Unbelievable amounts of rain suddenly fell over Thörl on Wednesday night. The consequences: Blockages, debris, huge amounts of mud. The lower-lying part of the municipality in particular was affected.

The water had disappeared by Thursday, but the damage was still clearly visible. Less on the well-cleaned main road, more on the heavily muddy side roads. Fences have been affected, and the doors in the sound studio are open for ventilation after the flooding.

Manfred Lenger was in action on Thursday with two helpers.

(Bild: Peter Bernthaler)

Three containers with broken items
Even residents of Thörl, who have lived here for 80 years, have never experienced anything like this, says Manfred Lechner. He is currently working with helpers, an excavator and a shovel to remove the masses of mud in front of his house and shed. He shows how the water has flooded his cellar.

In the barn, there are three containers full of broken furniture and other things that have become unusable: "Fortunately, a lot of people really helped me yesterday." Lechner was woken up on the night of the storm by the harsh sound of the rain, and since then there has hardly been time to rest.

Thörl after the stormy night

(Bild: FF Thörl)

"Water was a meter high"
Tobacconist Ilse Nisevic hopes that such flash floods will not happen again soon. She is calm, but as always after such elemental natural events, a little fear remains in the back of her mind. "The water was almost a meter high at the door of the tobacconist's, so we could only open the windows from the inside to provide the firefighters with things like coffee and drinks."

In the early hours of Thursday morning, the fire department's incident command team is gathered at the waste collection center near Aflenz for a briefing. Several dozen heavy emergency vehicles are ready. The deployment plan shows the fire departments, including those from Graz-Umgebung, Feldbach, Weiz and Liezen, along the Feistringbach from north to south.

"The operation is incredible"
Styrian State Fire Director Reinhard Leichtfried had high praise for the operation: "The effort is incredible. Many of those involved have interrupted their vacation to help out. What is being done here is not something that can be taken for granted, and we are always happy when everyone can return home safe and sound." A total of 351 firefighters with 90 fire departments were deployed in the municipalities of Aflenz and Thörl on Thursday. But the work is not over yet: the next step is to clean parking areas, traffic routes and sewers.

Bitter: this year's 10th anniversary of the "Summer of Art" festival in Thörl will unfortunately have to be canceled, says organizer Richard Fürstner. But there will be a kind of mini-festival with an exhibition at the end of the summer or beginning of the fall. The people of Thörl are not giving up.