The 2009 European floods were a series of natural disasters that took place in June 2009 in Central Europe. Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Turkey were all affected. The heavy rains caused overflowing of the rivers Oder, Vistula, Elbe and Danube. At least 12 people were killed in the Czech Republic and one in Poland.
The floods were the worst natural disaster in the Czech Republic since floods in 2002, which had killed 17 people and caused billions of dollars of damage in Prague. Those same floodwaters from the Czech Republic also affected Germany, with Dresden being hit by its worst flooding for over a century and three thousand people evacuated from areas where water was said to be waist-deep. Austria also experienced its heaviest rainfalls in half a century.
Weather
June 2009 was one of the rainiest months of June for Austria since weather records have been kept. After a very dry April, May had already been wet, and in the middle of June, low pressure areas and thunderstorms followed. Quinton Low ensured strong rainfall in the Eastern Alps, the southern Carpathians, and from the middle of the Balkan Peninsula to the Crimea and Baltic Sea regions between 20 and 30 June. It moved slowly over the Adriatic Sea toward the Black Sea forming an upper low – despite the typical muggy movement from the southeast and build-up of precipitation from the east and northeast, a classic flood situation that was missing the Genoa low of a ground low core.
The Quinton Low formed from 20 to 22 June, through constriction of an upper low over the Alps towards the southeast. An Atlantic infusion of cold air had brought heavy precipitation with snowfall down to elevations of 1500m. The separated upper low shifted over the mid-Adriatic on 20 and 21 June and the central Balkans on 22 June. Its front system, which was occluded from the east and then was guided to the northeast towards Central Europe, drove from 22 to 24 June from the Lower Inn Valley to the Vienna Basin with heavy precipitation of over 100mm/48h, with 207mm/48h in Lunz am See. Locally, this phase was similar to the 2005 European floods, although in that year there was a faster rise.
Starting on 25 June, the low moved over the Black Sea. On 25 and 26 June, the precipitation was concentrated in the area around Belgrade and Southern Hungary. In Austria and the Czech Republic, the situation eased. On 27 and 28 June, a front moved towards Southern Poland and the Baltic states, and further precipitation-heavy air masses once again struck the Czech Republic, Austria, and Serbia, as well as Central Bulgaria and Moldova on 29 June.
The stable and stationary weather situation did not disintegrate until after 29 June. However, the air mass over Central and Eastern Europe remained extremely moist and unstable such that heavy thunderstorms repeatedly drove further local floods in the following days. Local areas of heavy rain of up to 50mm in a few hours were recorded across Central Europe until the first two weeks of July. The end of the weather phase did not occur until the passing of the low Rainer over England and the North Sea and low Steffen over Southern Scandinavia, which the slowly advancing weather system surrounded from 3 to 9 July.
By country
Austria
On Tuesday 23 June, the strong rise began to impact the tributaries that lead from the south to the Danube, and flood warnings were triggered on the night of 24 June in many places in the Upper and Lower Austrian Prealps. The state warning centers were reinforced. By the morning of 24 June, about 4,000 firefighters were already operating in Upper Austria and Lower Austria. Armed Forces helicopters were also in use.
In Upper Austria, the Krems and Traun rivers partially came together at the banks. The level of the tributaries was rising while the Danube was steady. Seven districts in Lower Austria were already affected. The rivers Ybbs, Melk, Erlauf, Traisen, and Perschling were especially flooded. Ybbsitz had been closed off from the outside world since 3AM. At the Danube (Strudengau, Wachau), the available mobile flood prevention equipment was assembled as much as possible. In Styria, only individual actions were reported, mainly pumping operations but also elimination of mudslides.
By 25 June, the persistent rainfall was over. Instead, increasingly short heavy rains with large masses of water were recorded. Since the ground was no longer receptive to water, the aftereffects of these precipitations were similarly devastating. In Upper Austria, the situation calmed because the level of the tributaries was slowly falling towards normal levels. In Steyr, the level had sunk to the quay, 1.4m less than the previous day. The Danube had reached its highest level of 6.9m overnight in Mauthausen and also sank slowly. The center of the flood shifted towards Wachau as the precipitation itself moved towards the east. 253 of the 326 fire departments in Burgenland were called on for flood operations within 24 hours. The Albertina Museum in Vienna evacuated 950,000 artworks by artists such as Monet and Renoir.
On 26 June further floods affected areas stretching from Mostviertel to Burgenland, particularly in the Güssing District where whole tracts of land were under up to a meter of water, while Strem was surrounded by masses of water. The Armed Forces assisted the fire departments with 200 men. In the Lower Austrian Klingfurth near Wiener Neustadt, homes threatened by a landslide had to be evacuated. The Adria-Wien Pipeline, which lies in the affected hillside, had to be turned off for security reasons. In Styria, in which about 400 landslides were recorded since the beginning of the storm, the situation calmed a bit as the day turned to evening.
On Saturday 27 June, two dams of the Leitha river in Bruck an der Leitha District were broken open, allowing water to flow into an uninhabited area so as to relieve the river. On Sunday night, a fatality was reported.
Further installments of rain were encountered after the weekend. The assistance of the Armed Forces concentrated on the areas around Feldbach District and Fürstenfeld District. Upper Styria was also increasingly affected. The village of Radmer was without power and completely inaccessible after heavy mudslides. Floods and obstructions also surrounded Mariazell and Hieflau. The situation at the Enns intensified again. On the afternoon of Monday 29 June the level of the Steyr was again over 4m. Wachau also went into another flood warning. On the night of 30 June the Alpine railway station was flooded for the second time in the span of a few days after the strongest-ever measured rainfall in St. Pölten. The ÖBB again closed down the operation of the Mariazellerbahn.
On Tuesday, further landslides were able to be stopped with the help of Czech hedgehogs. Nevertheless, numerous buildings could still not be cleared as habitable. Due to scattered storms in Graz-Umgebung District, there were also frequent lightning strikes.
On Friday 3 July Wachau was affected by the storm for the second time within two weeks. Spitz, which had been previously flooded by the Danube, was flooded this time by the usually only 30 cm deep Spitzerbach, which swelled to 4m after thunderstorms. An 81-year-old man who was swept away was not found until 12 July in the Danube. Also, in Waldviertel and Steyr-Land District, severe thunderstorms occurred with heavy precipitation, which again required the use of over 2,000 firefighters.
On Monday 6 July, the strongest rainfall in 200 years began in the afternoon. Parts of Lower Austria, Vienna, and Northern Burgenland were especially affected. St. Pölten was again declared a disaster area, as large parts of the metropolitan area were flooded. The Nadelbach flooded the cadastral communities Nadelbach and Hafing. The surroundings of the Alpine Railway Station were yet again under water. Areas that had never before had to suffer through flooding were also unexpectedly under water on 6 July. Europaplatz and Schießstadtring in St. Pölten had to be closed off; a 7m-wide stream had carved itself out leading from the Alpine Railway Station to the center of the city. The regional court and the prison were also threatened by high water. A further danger existed at the EVN Group substation as the water level had almost brought power production to a halt. The B1a tunnel under the government Landhaus district was blocked due to the flood. The Western Railway had to be closed down for two hours in the evening. Additional problems arose due to the rise of the groundwater level associated with the flooding, which also reached a historical peak.
Severe weather warnings were issued on Thursday 7 July that were similar in scope to the days before. This time however, the storm affected the Upper Austrian area more, where especially extensive damage had been done by hail in agricultural areas in Gmunden, Vöcklabruck, and Wels. In Dürnstein in Wachau, there were rockslides at Vogelbergsteig, which blocked both the Danube Highway and the Danube Railway. The B3 became once again freely passable on 10 July, after explosions that removed loose rock from the wall. However, the Danube Railway required longer repair work.
On 10 July the situation in Styria again took a turn for the worse. There was further rainfall, especially in Feldbach District. There were about 600 landslides in Styria around this timeframe.
Precipitation in Austria
From 7:00AM on 22 June to 7:00AM on 24 June, several places in Austria received over 150L/m2 of rainfall. Below is the total monthly precipitation for June 2009 – from Upper Austria to Northern Burgenland, 200-300% of the average monthly precipitation totals were recorded, with Spitzenwert in St. Pölten at 388%, almost four times the normal amount.
The precipitation persisted even into the first half of July. Spitzenwerte was reached on 6 July. Places where the level reached over 50L/m2:
Damage and relief efforts
Damage estimates were first released after two weeks. The damage in Burgenland amounted to over €2,500,000. In Lower Austria, about 3,000 claims were registered with a total claim amount of about €60,000,000. Because of this, the assistance for Lower Austria was increased from an estimated €2,500,000 to €10,000,000. In Upper Austria, damage claims were expected to be about €20,000,000. In Styria, the amount was about €10,000,000. The other federal states did not report damage totals.
Since disaster management in Austria takes place mainly at the federal state level, figures for all of Austria are not readily available. Countrywide figures were only released for the Armed Forces. 137,000 relief hours were worked in the assistance operation from 23 June to 9 July. On average, about 700 soldiers were deployed at any time countrywide. 311,000 relief hours were worked by firefighters and disaster assistance services in the largest federal state Lower Austria alone. The Austrian Red Cross also helped with many volunteers and crisis intervention teams. Likewise, Team Austria volunteers were put to work in the relief effort.
The fact that at the beginning of August in Lower Austria alone twelve streets and three railways were obstructed shows how extensive the infrastructure damage was. The repair work took weeks.
Czech Republic
In the Czech Republic, persistent heavy rainfall beginning on 22 June led to the rise of smaller Vltavan tributaries in the Bohemian Forest and the Nové Hrady Mountains. A flood warning was issued for the South Bohemian Region. The highest level was reached in the rivers Malše, Blatnice, and Černá. České Budějovice was also affected by the warning. In the evening, the Rožnovská Bečva rose about 1.2m in Valašské Meziříčí and its water level at the estuary in the Bečva rose to ten times normal. The Vsetínská Bečva also swelled and several streets were flooded in Vsetín, Valašské Meziříčí, and Rožnov pod Radhoštěm. In Zubří, numerous cars were overcome by the water. There were fatalities in Černotín and Valašské Meziříčí. In Český Krumlov, the Vltava reached six times the normal water amount, with 63 m3/s. Near Větřní, a dinghy containing three occupants capsized, one of which drowned.