Many callouts

At 5:51 p.m., the storm began over Upper Austria

As seen here in Mattighofen, fire departments had to remove numerous fallen trees.(Bild: Manfred Fesl)

Sometimes predicted disasters do happen: On Friday evening, a storm with winds of up to 100 km/h swept through the region, uprooting numerous trees. By 8:00 p.m., 2,000 firefighters were on the scene, responding to 180 emergency calls. A surfer had to be rescued at Lake Wolfgang. 

The districts of Grieskirchen, Braunau, and Ried were particularly hard hit. It all started at 5:51 p.m., when the Feldkirchen near Mattighofen Fire Department was alerted to a “tree across the road.” According to Michael Buchbauer, the officer on duty at the State Fire Department Headquarters, 2,000 firefighters were on the scene by 8:00 p.m., responding to more than 180 calls: “The calls are split 50-50 between trees that have fallen onto the road and flooding. But it’s all still manageable.”

There was a rescue operation at Lake Wolfgang
One can only shake one’s head at the surfer who kept the fire departments and water rescue teams at Lake Wolfgang on edge in the middle of the storm. The irresponsible surfer was rescued. 

Here’s the storm summary
At 9:24 p.m., the Upper Austria State Fire Department Command issued a final report: Over the past four hours, a total of 130 fire departments across Upper Austria, with approximately 2,500 personnel, responded to around 220 incidents. As forecast, the storm front had moved from west to east across nearly the entire state. The districts of Braunau, Grieskirchen, Ried, and Schärding were the hardest hit. Key areas of operation included the municipalities of Kallham, Andorf, and Neumarkt in the Hausruckkreis. In Neumarkt in the Hausruck district, 50 l/m² of precipitation was recorded within 15 minutes. In Wolfsegg, a wind gust with a maximum speed of 107 km/h was recorded.