Flood fatality
“Karl underestimated the power of the water in the house”
The flood swept Karl R. (70) to his death in his own yard. Leo B. (80) also drowned in his house. "Krone" searches for clues in the Lower Austrian disaster area.
"My mom was just able to save herself on the Kuchlkastl. But her partner, Karl, never emerged from the water. Unfortunately, Karl underestimated the power of the water in the house," explains Martin Eichinger, the woman's shaken son, at the Krone's site inspection.
His tidying up of the belongings in the courtyard of the old listed farmhouse in Untergrafendorf, a small, tranquil hamlet in Lower Austria, seems almost helpless. Because too many memories were lost in the flood. In the coming hours, the 51-year-old has a heartbreaking task ahead of him: he has to retrieve a photo of the deceased from the flooded apartment for the mortician.
Victim was initially considered missing
Initially, the victim - who has no children of his own - who was caught up in the flood of the century on Sunday night, was reported missing. Then the body of the agonizingly drowned man was discovered in a storeroom.
Change of scene: There is also deep mourning in Höbersdorf near Korneuburg. Leo B. (80) drowned in his house, which had been flooded. "Leo was a very dear man. His great passion was photography," recalls the shocked couple Margarete and Franz M. from the neighborhood. The widower was a technical draughtsman in the army in Vienna. In retirement, he fulfilled his dream of living in the countryside. Until the flood tore him from his life. Firefighters discovered him on Monday morning - drowned in his house.
"Powerless against the forces of nature"
Meanwhile in Schildberg, mill owner Gabriele Plattner is facing the ruins of her existence. "We did everything possible to save our family business from the masses of water. But then the Perschling burst its banks and, despite all our defensive measures, we were powerless against the forces of nature," explains the brave businesswoman, whose eyes filled with tears in the office, which is no longer really an office because the mud almost reaches the ceiling. "We have to cope with millions in damage, and we're not sure how much the insurance will cover."
We are working in Höbersdorf with eight fire departments and a disaster relief platoon from Carinthia, pumping the water out of the cellars.
Feuerwehrkommandant Markus Schauhuber
Bild: Martin A. Jöchl
Like hundreds of others affected by the deluge, TCM physician Dr. Helmut Faulenbach, who had to close his surgery in St. Pölten for the time being because he had been trapped by the floods on the second floor of his house in the Pottenbrunn district since Saturday, is similarly desperate.
On Monday afternoon, assisting firefighters from Salzburg and Carinthia arrived and began pumping work.
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