Rain front

72 fire department operations in Salzburg so far

It is snowing in the Gastein Valley.(Bild: APA/EXPA/JFK)

It's raining and raining in Upper Austria and Salzburg. The provincial fire brigade commands have had to deal with a number of smaller operations up to Saturday morning. The unanimous opinion from both provinces is that they have got off lightly so far. 

From Thursday to Saturday morning, there were 72 operations in the province of Salzburg, which were dealt with by 613 firefighters from 43 fire departments. On Saturday, the Flachgau region was particularly affected. In Upper Austria, 14 operations had to be dealt with in the night from Friday to Saturday, spread across the country.

The hydrographic service reported rising water levels on the Inn, Danube and Enns. Warning levels in Mauthausen and Schärding were expected to be exceeded on Saturday afternoon and in Linz on Sunday morning. Flood protection measures were put in place. Local flooding of small and medium-sized bodies of water was possible everywhere, according to a press release issued early on Saturday morning.

The Enns in Steyr had already exceeded the pre-warning level and was still rising. The city called for people to avoid riverbanks, remove cars from potential flooding areas, close cellar windows and clean out drains. Sandbags for emergencies are available from the city's municipal services.

In Linz, the Traun cycle path below the Traunbrücke Ebelsberg bridge was closed as a precautionary measure, as was the Freistädter Straße/Linzer Straße pedestrian underpass.

Removing trees from the roads, pumping out flooded cellars, setting up flood protection and, in Salzburg, freeing vehicles from the snow - these were the tasks.