Floods and landslides hit Switzerland and Austria. Numerous ski resorts affected

A snowHead

I said they were fast, this just in from Wengen

17:10 CEST :
Wengen can be reached by train again.

Hotels do have power.
Phones are operating.
The road Wilderswil - Lauterbrunnen is open.

Getting back to normal.

A snowHead

The BBC has a dramatic set of photos of the floods in Switzerland and Austria: click here.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Some of Switzerland's problems are being blamed on poor advance warning, and inadequate flood prevention. This report from Swiss Info.

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David Goldsmith, I don't understand how the Swiss could possibly have got this one wrong. We got days of advance warning here in Bavaria. It just didn't do us any good that's all!
My parents in law have now finally managed to get back to their house in Kleinwalsertal. Happily it's still standing, but there's a lot of damage in the valley with mudslides all over the place. Apparently 14 hotels have been badly damaged over in Lech as well (only a few miles from Kleinwalsertal if you happen to be a crow).
On a lighter note, we got away with it here in Munich. But having stood on the Isar bridges and watched the sheer power of the water masses flowing under, and in some cases nearly over them, I can say that I have learnt new respect for the forces of nature.
If this is the way things are shaping up for our future then we are going to need to get dressed up warm... Puzzled

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What fell as rain at low altitude fell as snow above 3000m, to the extent that an avalanche warning was issued by Meteo France on 23 August. 60cm to 70cm of new snow has been measured at high altitude in the French Alps. High risk above 3300m was notified, according to this report on Pistehors.com.

Klosters in Switzerland - Prince Charles's regular ski destination - is reported to be "submerged in parts" by today's Daily Telegraph.

The Austrian ski valleys affected by floods appear to include the Lechtal, Oeztal and Kleinwalsertal. This report from Reuters says that shares in Swiss cablecar companies have fallen in value, due to worries about damaged machinery.

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Rob, not a drop of rain much below Grenoble, so down here in the Provençal backwaters the ground is still parched, the drought carries on. As Kuwait Ian says, most of the fires are started by arsonists. A fireman Shocked

was caught in the act a week or so back.

Very strong winds through the northern Alps so whether the 60-70cms DG mentions actually stuck anywhere, I'm not sure. Perhaps in the Haute Savoie - don't know what it was like at Tignes, but I hope they had their share - much needed.

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Spoke to my mum and dad last night (they've got back to Lauterbrunnen now) and they said that there are three people missing in the interlaken area. A British car was found submerged in Lake Brienz, but the reports were mixed as to whether the owner was one of the missing.

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Some amazing pictures here from Ishgl Paznautal & Lech

www.networld.at

Good pictures! (but what a lot of them! Did anyone get to the end?)

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Road and rail links between Zweilutschinen and Grindelwald were severely damaged, however they were hoping to start a bus service from Interlaken to Grindelwald last night, they've already got a bus service to Lauterbrunnen, in one spot on the way to Grindelwald the only thing supporting the railway line's the two steel tracks for a good hundred feet where the river has completely scoured out the bank underneath, I'll post a link to the pics later on

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The power of fast moving water is immense. It obeys a ninth power law. Double the speed and it can and will carry 2 to the power 9 times more burden. This is why when still water behind a dam causes the load to be dumped and eventually the dam to silt up, the original flow rate of the river below the dam scours the river bed so seriously as the water flow picks up it's alloted quantity of earth and rocks again. Similarly the faster flow on the outside of a bend cuts much more seriously into the bank while stones are dropped on the inside of the curve, eventually producing ox-bow lakes in the flatter sections of the river.

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kuwait_ian,

I believe you Confused

You know it makes sense.

Theres a whole new bunch of photos here. Lech seems to of been hit quite bad no wonder the webcams are down !

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

An update on the situation in Switzerland: SwissInfo.

A snowHead

I've put a few more pics on the Jungfrau Region thread

A snowHead

Considering myself very luck, as we very very nearly booked 2 weeks in/on Lake Thun starting last Saturday. Very bad for all concerned.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Some more towns for Carlisle to twin with, Band Ache, Ischgl, Lech, ........ Crying or Very sad

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A late update from networld.at

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The emergency in Engelberg continues, with the village cut off, tourists being evacuated by helicopter and a rush to restore communications before the ski season begins.

This report from the scene by Swiss Info.

A resort like Engelberg, which I've visited a couple of times, is particularly vulnerable to this kind of thing because it's at the end of a valley. Many Alpine resorts have two ways in. Engelberg has a year-round trade because of the Titlis glacier, which attracts plenty of Japanese and has the famous Rotair cablecar with its revolving floor:

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Further heavy rains and possible mudslides are feared for the Alps. Guardian Unlimited reports.

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Here's the dramatic escape account of a family from Carlisle - the Whytocks - who were heading from Lake Como in Italy to visit Murren, Switzerland. On the way to the resort, aiming to ride to the Schilthorn 'Piz Gloria' summit (of James Bond fame) their road was engulfed by floods.

Their Bond-quality escape is detailed in this report from NewsAndStar.co.uk.

After all it is free

David Goldsmith, sounds somewhat over dramaticised, there is only one road out of Lauterbrunnen, I suspect they got diverted arround the back of Wilderswil as I'm fairly certain the main road was under water there, however there is no bridge to be swept away on the road they took, it stays to the west ot the Lutscine river all the way to Lauterbrunnen. Elizabeth B's, parents made it back there with no problems after all, if they'd been going to Grindelwald I'd have been much more convinced, there the road has been covered in mud slides and at least one road bridge has been destroyed

here are some aerial of St Anton , Ischgl, Kappl See

http://www.alpinesicherheit.com/bild/hochwasser2005/index.html

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stanton, looks like Austria got hit pretty badly

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As D G Orf said, that report sounds a bit dodgy to me. To claim that they had to drive at least 100 mph in floods Shocked

It also says that they arrived there at 11.30 am. To the best of my knowledge, it was into the afternoon before the road was closed. Still, it's a bad situation to be in.

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Few more shots from Lech

http://www.hospiz.com/content/dachmarke/aktuelles/vip/fotoalbumDetail.asp?catName=wasTut_TatSich&id=6_1991548649

I shall consider myself very lucky that I was merely whinging about the continual rain whilst camping and MTBing in Morzine

You know it makes sense.

Hi, Have just returned from holiday in Ellmau in the Ski-Welt. All the news of course has been about the floods on the evening news on the television.

We arrived last Saturday in resort and it rained on Sunday and Monday, not torrential but annoying when you are on a walking holiday. On the Monday night it started raining in torrents and kept it up for 36 hours. On the Tuesday we went to Kitzbuhel for a trip and on our return we came back by way of the Brixen Thale. Well, the torrents in the roadside river was of biblical proportions, with huge roller-coasters of reddish brown water thundering down the gorges. Thankfully none of defences along the roadsise were breached. It was during this period that we realised something pretty awesome was happening.

Later we heard that the River Inn which is normally no more than 3 metres deep doubled to being 6 metres deep. For a time some of the bridges acroos the River Inn at Innsbruck and Kufstein were closed as a precaution.

Apparently a new shopping centre in Worgl with a basement area was evacuated with 10 minutes to spare before being flooded.

The Paznaun Valley where Ischgl is located was devastated, with I believe 15 kms of valley road being washed away. In Pflach near Reutte there was a damburst with 700 houses inundated. The Arlberg Pass and tunnel are still closed. The Reschen Pass from Austria to Switzerland was still shut 2 days ago. In Lech a hotel was inundated with a landslide. Gargellen in the Montafon has been cut off. At one stage Garmisch was cut off. The Austrian authorities have launched a disaster appeal on national television. They are saying that it will take until Xmas to restore some sort road connections alone. For the people of Voralberg and West Tirol this is a massive catastrophe, claimed to be a one in 5000 years occurence.

I understand the problem was caused by a depression swinging in from the Atlantic on a very southerly track across France and Switzerland to western Austria where it stopped and didn't move for 36 hours, dumping over 5 inches of rain on the mountains around. It must have been like Boscastle but covering a much wider area.

It going to take a long for the area to recover but the resorts of Ischgl and Galtur must be very worried the up-coming ski season

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Very interesting indeed, David. Thanks for that.

A snowHead

I did a search concerning Ischgl etc. Thankfully things may not be as serious as it first seemed. This is a PR release from last Saturday. And this report from TravelVideo.tv mentions:

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David Goldsmith, Good to hear that the authorities are getting on top of the problems. It going to take some time for some of the worst hit to rebuild their livelihoods. Good to know that there was relatively there were not that many casualties.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Galtur seems to experience more than its share of acts of God. The avalanche which tore through the village in February 1999 was extraordinarily powerful. On that occasion 31 lives were lost so, yes, they've been luckier this time. But what an ordeal this (lovely) little village goes through!

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Here's the dramatic eye-witness account of a couple of British holidaymakers who were sightseeing below the Eiger when the floods cut off their connections back to Wilderswil, near Interlaken. They eventually had to escape Lauterbrunnen by helicopter. This report from Burnley Today.

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Hmm a little more exageration I think this is Wilderswil the day after the flooding

The mud and water appears to have been no more than a few inches deep at most a foot

This is where the two rivers meet at Zwei Lutschinen, in the report it claims " the trains were under water up to the carriage windows"

As you can see from the nice white train shed in the foreground there is no evidence that the muddy waters ever got to be more than a few inches deep here

In fact the only damage to the line occured as it passed alongside the main road between Interlaken and Wilderwil where a small section of embankment gave way covering almost completely the dual carrigeway

At no point along this stretch of line was the mud ever up to 2 meters deep as claimed in the article, in fact the line was fully reopened this morning from Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen.

However it's not all good news the line from Zweilutschinen to Grindelwald and the main road have both been badly damaged by the flooding, for more pictures have a look on the Jungfrauregion thread here

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Just a revisit to this summer thread .

I just come across some more photos Lech & Stuben.

For folks who know the piste from Rauz down to Stuben theres some photos in here.

http://www.naturfoto-graf.at/images/Hochwasser_Stuben/slides/2005_0724Bild0043.html

http://www.naturfoto-graf.at/images/HW_LECH/slides/DSC_2954.html

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Wow Stanton,
Great photo's, in a kind of somber way, really capture what happened there.
Do you know how ready Lech will be for this winter?, And the run to Stuben? Looks a bit choppy in those photos! But thank you for the links, very informative.

Andy

After all it is free

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Here we go again ........

http://www.espace.ch/_apps_fotogallery/event_show.asp?gID=4678

http://www.20min.ch/news/schweiz/story/21917721

Raining in Arlberg as well but does not seem like the river in Lech is to high right now.

http://www.lech-zuers.at/xxl/_lang/en/_season/at1/_area/585619/_subArea/585774/_camID/5812/_inc/live-camera/index.html

Help!!

Floods and landslides hit Switzerland and Austria. Numerous ski resorts affected

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