Snowstorm sweeps over Germany – meter-high drifts

Berlin

Dozens of stuck trucks, a rescue operation from a suspension railway and major problems in rail traffic: a heavy snowstorm has caused traffic chaos in parts of Germany.

In some places more than 30 centimeters of snow fell and there were meter-high drifts. Police and fire brigade drove countless missions. There were major restrictions on regional and long-distance rail services. Football games have also been canceled. And according to the German Weather Service (DWD), it wasn’t.

The heavy onset of winter brought the clearance services to their limits in North Rhine-Westphalia, for example. The police had to block highways as smooth as glass, there were hundreds of accidents, and trains were canceled due to iced overhead lines. Buses stood still in many places. Cars got stuck in deep drifts of snow.

The Bundesliga game between Arminia Bielefeld and Werder Bremen planned for the evening has been canceled. The place was not playable, it was said by the German Football League. The second division game Paderborn against Heidenheim was not played either.

In Wuppertal, emergency services freed six people from a suspension railway. According to the fire brigade, the train could no longer run due to the icy weather and stopped. The passengers were freed from lofty heights with turntable ladders and were uninjured. Because of the large amount of snow, a circus tent collapsed in Hagen. 13 animals were rescued.

Truck traffic in East Hesse came to a temporary standstill on Sunday night. More than 55 articulated trucks were unable to negotiate the gradients there due to the slippery road surface and their weight.

The restrictions on rail traffic were sometimes massive: there were no trains between Hamburg and North Rhine-Westphalia and between Hamburg and Hanover, for example. There are restrictions between Hamburg and Berlin, Deutsche Bahn announced on its website. Rail traffic will also be significantly restricted on Monday.

On Sunday afternoon, the railway said that the worsening weather situation was currently causing further restrictions in long-distance traffic in the Erfurt railway junction. There were therefore no trains from Frankfurt / Main and Kassel to the east. On the connection Halle / Leipzig / Magdeburg there are further failures of the long-distance lines. “In Lower Saxony, Bremen and especially in the greater Hanover area there is no easing of the situation”, it said further. For stranded travelers, the railway set up so-called residence trains – to warm up.

Federal Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer (CSU) advised those affected by the snow chaos in Germany to stay at home at the beginning of the week. Scheuer said after a briefing on Sunday at “Bild live” that one could not guarantee that the rail traffic would be up and running again on Monday. The wind creates “mega” problems, especially with snow drifts. The motorways and the train are also affected. That means: “Better to stay at home” in consultation with the employer, said the minister.

Low “Tristan” over Central Europe and the Central Mediterranean, in combination with high “Gisela” over Scandinavia, brings more icy air. “After the snowy and windy weekend, the great cold is coming from the east,” said meteorologist Simon Trippler from the DWD on Sunday. Snow must continue to be expected, but it does not fall as intensely as on the weekend.

On Tuesday, the snowfall will mostly subside, except on the coast. For the nights, the meteorologists predict freezing cold, often with severe frost below minus ten degrees. Locally, especially over snow surfaces, temperatures as low as minus 20 degrees are “quite possible”.

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210207-99-334005 / 12

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