
Numerous rivers and streams burst their banks and caused widespread flooding. Residential buildings, business premises, agricultural land, roads and bridges as well as infrastructure facilities were severely affected. Flooded cellars, destroyed roads and damaged buildings are among the most common types of damage that the affected communities have to deal with. In many areas, dams had to be secured and evacuations carried out to protect human lives.
The extent of the damage runs into the millions, with agriculture and tourism being particularly hard hit. It is expected that the clean-up work will continue for weeks to come. 99% of the Austrian fire brigades are volunteers! - and countless volunteers are still working to deal with the consequences of the disaster.
In Upper Austria alone, 420 of a total of 906 fire brigades were deployed. Around 16,700 mostly volunteer firefighters put in an impressive 36,500 working hours in 1,830 operations. The tasks ranged from safety measures to pumping out buildings, shovelling mud, filling sandbags and extensive clean-up work. These storm operations are among the biggest challenges of the last ten years. At the same time, everyday tasks such as firefighting, dealing with road accidents and rescuing people continued. The operations were coordinated by the Operations Staff and the Provincial Warning Centre of the Provincial Fire Service Command.
The comprehensive network of 906 fire brigades in Upper Austria with a total of 95,000 members once again proved to be indispensable. The investments made in disaster control and modern equipment in recent years have had a major impact in this exceptional situation. In addition, the good co-operation with the business community contributed to this, as many companies released members of the fire brigade for deployment.
Fire service president Robert Mayer praised the outstanding performance of the firefighters:
"It's impressive what our comrades have achieved over the last few days. A big thank you to all of them. I would also like to thank the public for their great appreciation and gratitude - that is the reward for the tireless efforts of our volunteers."
The fire service will remain operational in the coming days. At the beginning of the week, six disaster response teams with 250 personnel and 45 vehicles were dispatched from Upper Austria to Lower Austria to help in the severely affected area. The willingness to continue sending forces there remains unbroken.
#schongenial would like to thank the Austrian fire brigades for saving Austria from an even greater disaster.