- The official celebration for August 1st with Federal Councillor Elisabeth Baume-Schneider on Wednesday in Rorschach SG was cancelled at short notice due to an approaching thunderstorm.
- The festival tent was cleared, as a reporter from the Keystone-SDA news agency reported.
- The cancellation was made for security reasons, said the security chief of the city of Rorschach.
Several dozen people then left the festival grounds. It was raining heavily and thunder could be heard. The SP Federal Councillor’s speech was scheduled for 7 p.m. Baume-Schneider’s speech in Rorschach has been cancelled. Instead, she will speak on Thursday in Saint-Pierre-de-Clages VS. In Rorschach, the Interior Minister had previously attended an informal meeting with representatives of several municipalities, a spokesperson for her department explained.
The cantonal emergency call center of the cantonal police of St. Gallen had to forward over 90 reports to the responsible fire departments in the early evening. Large amounts of water were reported on the streets. In some cases, water entered houses. There is no information about any injuries. In addition to the city of St. Gallen, several surrounding communities between Degersheim, Gossau, Wittenbach, Mörschwil and Rorschach were affected by the severe storm.
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Legend:
There is water in St. Gallen train station.
SRF/Beat Kälin
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Legend:
SRF/Beat Kälin
Since the afternoon, strong thunderstorms have swept across the whole of Switzerland. There was heavy rain and gusts of wind. In Linthal in the canton of Glarus, wind speeds of 111 kilometers per hour were measured. So far, there have been reports of trees being blown over and streets being flooded, according to the news agency Keystone SDA. By early evening, a total of around 48,000 lightning strikes had been recorded, according to SRF Meteo.
Legend:
Due to gusts of wind a tree fell over in Wittenbach SG.
SRF/Reto Hanimann
There were no reports of major damage at the moment. There were reports of trees being knocked over and streets and squares being temporarily flooded.
In several communities in the Chur Rhine Valley, the power went out for around an hour in the early evening. 8,500 households in Landquart, Zizers, Fläsch and Maienfeld were affected.
Lightning strikes house in Uetendorf and ignites fire
In Uetendorf, lightning struck a two-family house and caused a fire. The attic burned down. No one was injured.
According to the police, the building was no longer habitable for the time being. The police were alerted to the lightning strike and the subsequent fire shortly before 3:55 p.m., according to the Bern cantonal police. When the emergency services arrived on site, flames were blazing from the roof of the building. The fire service was deployed with around 64 firefighters. According to the report, they quickly brought the fire under control and were able to extinguish it.
Three adults and two children who were in the building managed to get themselves to safety outside. Thanks to private individuals and the community, the residents of the house found shelter elsewhere.
