What has happened

Ötz and Pitztal: One year after a fatal flood

While the access road to the bridge to Köfels was destroyed, the bridge itself held up. It was reconnected to the road around ten months after the flood.(Bild: Christof Birbaumer)

A dramatic flood event like the one in summer 2023 in Tyrol's Ötztal on the Ötztaler Ache river statistically only occurs once in 100 years. On Wednesday, the "Krone" was present at a local inspection in Umhausen: almost nothing remained of the damage caused by the devastating floods.

In July and August 2023, the Ötztaler Ache and the Pitze in the Pitztal valley burst their banks. Massive damage to the infrastructure was the result. In Umhausen in particular, nature showed how difficult it is to tame.