Hailstorm in Germany Rips Through a Town,
Damaging Buildings and Cars
An estimated 80 percent of buildings were damaged
during a hailstorm in Bad Bayersoien, Germany.
Christopher
F. Schuetze
By
Christopher F. Schuetze
Reporting
from Berlin
Aug. 27,
2023
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/27/world/europe/hailstorm-damage-germany-bavaria.html
An
estimated 80 percent of buildings were damaged during a hailstorm in a town in
southern Germany on Saturday, according to local authorities, leading officials
to declare a state of emergency.
The storm
was part of a weather system that caused injuries and damage across the
southern part of the country over the weekend during one of the most turbulent
summers Europe has faced in years.
Hailstones,
some of which measured three inches wide, damaged cars, roofs and windows
during a 15-minute storm in Bad Bayersoien, a small town of 1,300 people in
Bavaria.
Video
footage from Bad Bayersoien shows entire roofs destroyed by hail. Roof-mounted
solar panels were pierced by hailstones and car windows were smashed, according
to news reports.
On Sunday
morning, local authorities ordered a state of emergency in order to mobilize
state resources to clean up the town; emergency roofing was ordered and will be
installed until the damage can be repaired permanently.
“The end of
the operation is not yet in sight and the forces on the ground still have some
heavy work ahead of them,” Anton Speer, the district’s commissioner, said in a
statement.
Elsewhere
in Bavaria, the storm left several people injured. In Kissing, a town just
outside of the city of Augsburg, 12 people were hurt when a gust of wind tore
through a festival tent as it was being erected. About 100 residents of a
senior home in the town were relocated after the storm damaged the facility’s
roof.
The storm
was part of a weather system that also caused major flooding, toppled a crane
and uprooted trees in the region. The cost of the damage has not yet been
assessed.
Floods,
fires and heavy rains have landed repeated blows across Europe this summer,
with the authorities scrambling to respond to the extreme weather.
Large areas
of southern Europe baked under extreme temperatures last week, the latest in a
string of heat waves that have scorched the continent and sent residents and
tourists scrambling for cool shelter.
In a region
where it is not especially common for homes and businesses to have
air-conditioning, many areas sweltered under temperatures exceeding 86 to 95
degrees Fahrenheit and some topped 104 degrees. Temperatures in some cities
were not as high but still far above the norm for so late in the summer.
In Greece,
tinder-like conditions and heat waves have led to the worst ever recorded
wildfires, according to authorities.
Southern
Germany remains on alert for heavy rainfall until Tuesday.
Christopher
F. Schuetze covers German news, society and occasionally arts from the Berlin
bureau. Before moving to Germany, he lived in the Netherlands, where he covered
everything from tulips to sea-level rise. More about Christopher F.
Schuetze
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