Travel chaos spreads in central Europe after heavy flooding

DAYS of unrelenting rains, widespread flooding and high winds in central and eastern Europe are increasingly playing havoc with rail transportation and causing more evacuations of residents. 

Austria suspended rail traffic on a section of a key line between Vienna and Salzburg due to flooding risk, and subway services on at least three lines in the capital, Vienna, have also been affected. 

About 40 train lines in the Czech Republic were closed by Sunday (Sep 15). Passenger rail traffic between the Czech Republic and Poland has been suspended until further notice, the Polish railways PKP Intercity said.

In Austria, trains will be halted between Amstetten and St Valentin on the so-called Weststrecke, a four-track high-speed route which accounts for about one third of all Austrian rail traffic and serves as a key connector between Germany and eastern Europe.

The Austrian railway service OeBB and private carrier Westbahn are offering replacement buses for the 40 km stretch, while freight traffic will be halted, or rerouted with significant detours, according to a statement from OeBB on Sunday. 

Torrential rain has caused flooding across large swathes of central and eastern Europe. In Romania, flash flooding caused four deaths, and at least one death was reported in Poland and one – a firefighter – in Austria. Two more people in Romania have been missing for two days, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said on Sunday. 

A low-pressure vortex centred over the Balkan peninsula will bring further, often heavy precipitation, on Sunday, especially in north, central and eastern Austria, according to the forecasting service GeoSphere.  

Lower Austria, the country’s most populous province after Vienna, declared a state of emergency and advised people to postpone unnecessary travel. Authorities have evacuated about 1,100 homes so far. 

Officials expect Austria’s Ottensteiner Reservoir to exceed capacity despite draining about half of its water volume in preparation for the heavy rains that started late last week. That will likely lead to further increase in water levels along the Kamp River, a tributary of the Danube. 

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“The coming days will be extremely difficult and challenging for the affected population and the emergency services,” Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said on X. “Fire services, civil defence, police and the federal army are on high alert to help wherever their support is urgently needed.” 

Following heavy snowfall in the mountains on Friday and Saturday down to lower elevations, Austria’s snow line will slowly rise to about 1,200 to 1,600 m above sea level over the course of Sunday. 

Polish and Czech authorities have also mobilised tens of thousands of first responders, and at least two border crossings between the countries were closed on Saturday due to the flooding of local roads on the Czech side.

“We are mobilising helicopters, the first Black Hawk with rescue capabilities is arriving in Wroclaw” in south-west Poland, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on X as he confirmed the nation’s first flood-related death. About 1,000 people have been evacuated. 

The situation in the Czech Republic worsened overnight, with rivers flooding many towns and villages, mainly in the north-eastern parts of the country. 

The authorities have begun evacuating more than 10,000 residents in the Czech town of Opava near the Polish border, and thousands more were forced to leave homes in nearby regions. Rescue services have deployed army helicopters to help lift people trapped in inundated houses. More than 250,000 households were without electricity on Sunday morning.