Vienna rescue service: More than 300 operations due to storms

The current storm is causing numerous trees to fall and other accidents in Vienna. The Vienna emergency services have therefore been on more than 400 missions since yesterday.

VIENNA. Reports of accidents due to the current storm in Vienna are increasing. Not only has public transport been partially paralyzed for short periods of time. There are also reports of trees falling over.

When asked by MeinBezirk.at, a spokesman for the professional fire brigade said that around 150 operations were carried out yesterday alone due to the normal weather. “Half of them were caused by the heavy rainfall and the other half by the wind. Today we have had around 400 operations since early in the morning, including ‘normal day-to-day business’,” said the spokesman.

Buses affected

But at least 300 to 350 of today’s operations can be attributed to the storm. No area in Vienna is more severely affected than another, as far as the fire service can currently estimate. “It’s actually quite evenly distributed,” explains the spokesperson.

For example, the fire brigade is currently working on tram line 62 in the Wolkersbergenstrasse/Vorsorgeheimplatz area. For this reason, there is currently no service between Dörfelstrasse and Wattmanngasse. Instead, they wanted to use line 60. There is no end in sight to the disruption.

Falling trees

Bus lines 4A, 13A and 94A are also affected and run at irregular intervals. According to a spokesperson for Wiener Linien, the main reason for the changing service disruptions is trees falling on the overhead lines or on the route of public vehicles. This is mainly due to the strong wind and less to the rain.

There is, however, positive news for football fans. Referee Julian Weinberger has inspected the pitch in the Generali Arena and found it to be fit for play. This means that the FK Austria Wien match, which was scheduled for tomorrow morning, will take place as planned.

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