Cleared at short notice

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The Villach church festival had to be interrupted due to the threat of severe weather (archive photo).

(Bild: Rojsek-Wiedergut Uta)

In Carinthia, a storm front with a lot of rain in a short time and strong gusts of wind on Thursday led to some difficulties, but no serious problems for the time being. The usually well-attended area of the Villach church festival was cleared around 5 pm as a precaution before the arrival of the bad weather.

The area was still closed around 7 p.m., but the situation seemed to be easing, according to the fire department. The storm had passed, but the rain had not yet. A short time later, the organizers announced via social media that the closure had been lifted.

Minor flooding in Spittal
Up to 6000 households in the state were temporarily without power, 5000 still in the evening, according to ORF Carinthia. In the district town of Spittal, to the west of Villach, there was again some minor flooding in the afternoon due to some manhole covers overflowing because of all the rain in a very short time.

Earlier in the afternoon, main roads were temporarily closed due to fallen trees, showing the potential dangers of the storm front with strong gusts. According to police reports, this affected the B 98 Millstätter Straße between Spittal and Villach near the municipality of Afritz am See and the B 70 Packer Straße in the Wolfsberg district. The Wolfsberg tunnel on the A 10 Tauern highway in the Spittal/Millstätter See junction was closed in both directions due to a power failure.