"All in all, 350 people are currently on duty," said Peter Mall, spokesman for the crisis management team, in an interview with the "Krone" newspaper on Saturday morning. Nine fire departments from the district are in St. Anton, as well as the mountain rescue, ambulance, police and many private helpers.

Race against time, more rain forecast
"The focus is now clearly on clearing the streams of debris and blockages. Some of the debris basins are also full. These also need to be emptied," says Mall, who is concerned about the forecast heavy rainfall, especially on Sunday. It could be a race against time ...

Speaking of heavy rain: "It was extraordinary. This speed," Mall describes. "It rained heavily for an hour. The front didn't move on. It literally got stuck on the Galzig," says Mall.

Flash floods and mudslides
The result: mudslides and veritable flash floods through the village. Several roads in the municipality are closed - including the Arlbergstraße. (B197). This means that Vorarlberg can currently only be reached from Tyrol via the Lechtal valley, as the Arlberg tunnel is also still closed due to renovation work.

Cars swept away by masses of water
The force of the water masses was also shown by the fact that at least two cars were swept away by the floods.

"Fortunately, we were able to quickly verify that it was parked cars with nobody in them," explains Mall, who also emphasizes: "There are no injuries, everyone is safe. That's the best thing that can happen to us in this situation at the moment."

A reconnaissance flight by helicopter was planned for the morning in order to assess the situation from above and possibly discover further potential dangers. Meanwhile, the emergency services had to clean up, pump out cellars and remove mud from them.

Hotspots also in the low mountain range and Sellrain Valley
The storms in Tyrol also caused problems elsewhere on Friday evening. The Sellraintalstraße (L13) will remain closed until at least Monday after a mudslide in the Sellrain municipal area between Sellrain and Kematen. According to the state, a bypass is possible via one-way traffic out of the valley via Grinzens (Tanneben district) and into the valley via Oberperfuss (L233 Oberperfer Straße).

Pictures of the mudslide in Sellrain:

The Götzener Landesstraße (L12) is also closed after a landslide. A bypass to Grinzens is possible via the Bachele municipal road.

More than 100 call-outs for fire departments
The Tyrol control center recorded a total of 110 fire department operations between Friday evening, 5 pm, and Saturday morning, 5 am. 62 fire brigades were alerted. The majority of these were severe weather operations, as was reported in response to an inquiry from "Krone".

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