Storms Luise and Manja cut power in Freiburg and disrupt rail and ferry traffic

Power cut across Freiburg

Strong winds from the storm lows Luise and Manja knocked out electricity in Freiburg and the Dreisamtal valley early on Sunday, 25 October. Police said several thousand households were affected at times and estimated that around 25,000 people had no power that morning. The regional energy supplier Badenova put the number at about 10,000 households and described the damage as considerable. Reports say a tin roof, lifted by the wind, landed on a substation in the Littenweiler district and caused a short circuit. By late morning most households had power again, but the small municipality of Oberried, southeast of Freiburg, was still without electricity, and technicians were working to restore supply for just over 2,500 households.

Hospital limits emergency care

The Freiburg university hospital could not treat every emergency patient during the outage. In an Instagram post, it asked that only life-threatening cases come to its emergency department, directing other patients to nearby emergency departments and emergency practices. Police reported just over 50 emergency calls during the morning, many from worried residents, and no further incidents linked to the outage. Later in the morning the clinic announced a return to normal operations, and its power supply had been restored.

The regular clinic operations are already being gradually resumed.

Storm damage beyond Freiburg

The storms caused damage across several regions. The Harz control centre logged 28 operations since Saturday morning, mostly for fallen trees and branches that damaged cars and a house, with nobody injured. Fire brigades in North Rhine-Westphalia recorded 31 weather-related operations by Sunday morning, mostly for fallen trees or branches, and no larger incidents or injuries had been reported so far. In Hesse, police reported only minor property damage after a stormy and rainy night.

Rail, ferries and forecast

Deutsche Bahn reported weather-related disruption on the long-distance line between Münster and Recklinghausen. ICE and IC trains ran up to 15 minutes late, and no trains stopped in Recklinghausen. Ferry links to the island of Helgoland were suspended, and shipping companies expected them to restart only on Tuesday, 27 October. The German Weather Service (DWD) in Offenbach said storm or hurricane-force gusts remained possible on the North Sea coast and in higher areas, with gusts above 100 km/h in places and up to 85 km/h elsewhere. A warning for parts of the Black Forest covered hurricane-like gusts up to 120 km/h and rainfall of up to 80 litres per square metre. The Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH) warned of a storm surge on the German North Sea coast, expecting high water of 1.5 to 2 metres on the East Frisian coast and in the Elbe area during the night to Monday, 26 October, and about 1.5 metres in the Weser area. Snow was also forecast for the Alps, and wind was expected to ease only overnight into Monday.