Firefighter emphasizes:

Severe weather operations are now happening “much more often”

Klaus Portenkirchner is the head of the Pinzgau district fire department and has been with the fire department for 45 years

(Bild: Gerhard Schiel)

A breather for the Pinzgau emergency services after many mudslides and floods in the past few days. Now the torrent barriers are being cleared again: "We all hope that the weather holds", the firefighters say.

"You can already see the climate change here": Klaus Portenkirchner, leader of the Pinzgau firefighters, says after the storm operations. "There isn't a year without these operations anymore. Compared to the past, there are considerably more," emphasizes the Dienten native with 45 years of fire department experience.

(Bild: EXPA/ JFK)

At the weekend, a number of mudslides occurred in the Zell am See and Kaprun area as a result of a thunderstorm, there was flooding in places and one person was seriously injured - the "Krone" reported. "The clean-up work has been completed, now it's the turn of the road maintenance and torrent control teams," it says. Above all, the debris is now being cleared from the torrent barriers - so that they are free in case something comes down from the mountain again.

Some, such as the Kaprun Menggbach, had to be cleared several times, says Manfred Höger from the Zell district authority: "We are all very happy about the correctly dimensioned barriers." A detailed inspection of the damage is underway. "We hope that the weather holds," concludes Portenkirchner.