Status: 05/23/2023 4:08 p.m
The Weserbergland in Lower Saxony was particularly affected by the storms in the north. Heavy rains flooded streets and basements. The Bad Pyrmont district of Thal was particularly hard hit.
In the hilly town, the houses in the valleys were hit by the masses of water that rolled through the town like a torrent. The rain had taken a lot of soil from the surrounding fields. The water flowed through the town up to a meter high, said Thals Mayor Werner Ritterbusch. 20 cellars were flooded, and the brown sludge pushed its way through the ground floors of four half-timbered houses from the 18th century.
The mud in the living room is ten centimeters high
Lucie Flebbe from Thal shows her flooded basement.
The mud was ten centimeters high in her living room, said Lucie Flebbe in an interview with NDR Lower Saxony. “The garden is gone, the driveway is gone – catastrophic.” The situation in Claudia Ritterbusch’s house was similar: the mud was ten centimeters high there too – and that after a renovation had just taken place. Hundreds of helpers cleared the worst of the dirt from the houses and streets on Tuesday night. “It was all about speed so that it doesn’t dry out,” said Michael Klocke from the Thal fire brigade. Once the mud gets hard, it has to be pried out. And that had to be prevented. But the traces of the mud are still clearly visible in the houses.
Damage to the country road and railway line
Michael Klocke, fireman from Thal, shows how high the water level was on Monday evening.
The S-Bahn route from Bad Pyrmont to Hamelin was also affected by the water masses: a piece of the embankment was torn away, which is why the route was completely closed at times. It is now single track again. According to a railway spokeswoman, the second track should be passable again on Wednesday afternoon. There is also damage on the country road between Thal and Bad Pyrmont. On Tuesday, half of the road was open to traffic again in both directions.
Mudslide buries federal road under itself
The storm also caused damage in the Holzminden district: A mudslide buried parts of the federal highway 64 under itself. The section between Negenborn and Eschershausen was temporarily completely closed. Because the heavy rain had washed away areas next to the road. The Negenborn bypass was only opened in mid-April after seven years of construction.
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Accident on A1 in heavy rain
Two young men were injured in a traffic accident on the A1 between the Sittensen (Rotenburg-Wümme district) and Elsdorf junctions. The 20-year-old driver lost control of his car in heavy rain and left the roadway. The car overturned. The driver and his 24-year-old passenger were taken to hospital with minor injuries.
Severe weather: eleven operations by the fire brigade in Goslar
The storms in Steinhorst and Wahrenholz (both in the Gifhorn district) were less severe. There, however, five cellars still had to be pumped out, as a fire department spokesman said. In Ischenrode (Göttingen district), the heavy rain had also flooded a street. And in Goslar, the fire brigade deployed eleven times – because of overflowing gullies and basements. In addition, a roof truss was on fire after a lightning strike.
It’s getting friendlier
During the course of Tuesday the weather situation stabilized again. Only on the North Sea coast in Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein did the German Weather Service warn of “distinctive weather”. The meteorologists are also announcing a few hours of sunshine for Thursday.
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