Flooding risks in parts of Switzerland and Germany after heavy rains

High water on the Thur River near Bischofszell in northeastern Switzerland on May 31. Keystone / Gian Ehrenzeller

There is a significant risk of flooding on the River Rhine from Lake Constance to Basel and on the Thur River in canton Thurgau in eastern Switzerland.

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According to the Swiss federal government, the heavy rain north of the Alps will continue until Saturday morning.

On Friday evening, the federal government’s natural hazards platform issued a flood risk level of 3 out of 5 for the Rhine and Thur. At this risk level, the federal government advises people to stay away from rivers.

According to the federal government, there is a moderate flood risk of level 2 on the Aare, the Limmat, the Reuss, the Linth as well as on Lake Zurich and Lake Walen.

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By Saturday morning, Zurich fire brigades had been called out 200 times because of water in buildings or flooded streets. The Zurich Oberland as well as Zell and Turbenthal were particularly affected, wrote Schutz&Rettung Zürich on X.

By Saturday morning, the operations control centre had received over 700 emergency calls, 300 of which concerned the fire department. The professional fire department was also called out several times in the city of Zurich due to water damage.

Flood warnings in parts of Germany

The flood warnings also apply to parts of southern Germany. Even though there were no large-scale floods during the night, floods of the century are feared in many places. The highest warning level 4 applies to western Swabia, the Upper Allgäu and Upper Bavaria, the German Weather Service in Offenbach announced.

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The Swabian district of Augsburg has declared a state of emergency due to the extreme rainfall and rising water levels. The district office said that the water levels are expected to continue to rise sharply in the coming hours. The communities of Fischach and Langenneufnach will be particularly affected. Some streets in the district are flooded. The district of Günzburg had already declared a state of emergency the day before.

The Lake Constance region is particularly in focus. Owing to the acute risk of flooding, around 1,300 people in Meckenbeuren, Baden-Württemberg, were advised to leave their homes. Other communities asked residents on Friday evening to avoid basements as a precaution and, if necessary, to sleep elsewhere for a few days.

The rising water levels of the rivers are also causing concern further north, for example on the Danube and its other tributaries. Here, floods are expected to occur in some areas, which statistically only occur every 50 to 100 years.

In other regions too, the rainfall has caused water levels in rivers to rise – and further increases are expected. In Hesse, according to the regional State Office for Nature Conservation, Environment and Geology, flooding on the Rhine and Neckar is possible, which statistically only occurs every 20 years.

According to the DWD, people in eastern Germany must prepare for a lot of rain and, in some cases, thunderstorms. However, the storm is expected to hit Thuringia, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt less severely than initially feared.

Adpated from German by DeepL/sb

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