| |
| Situation Update No. 3 Ref.no.: SS-20100109-24483-DEU
Situation Update No. 3
On 2010-01-10 at 17:59:40 [UTC]
Event: Snow Storm
Location: Germany Statewide Situation: More than 160 people were stranded in their vehicles overnight in Germany after heavy snowfall brought a motorway along the Baltic Coast to a standstill. Rescue crews had to use snow ploughs to push through 2m (78in) drifts to free the travellers, among them 19 children. Hundreds more were stranded at airports as dozens of flights were cancelled, and rail and ferry services were cut. Germany was hit by severe winter weather for a second day on Sunday, with Leipzig and Berlin both under almost a foot (30cm) of snow and gale-force winds buffeting many places. Dozens of villages in rural Schleswig-Holstein and on Baltic Sea islands remain cut off and many accidents have been reported on icy roads across the country, a situation exacerbated by shortages of grit. Parts of the A20 motorway near Altentreptow, where motorists were stranded overnight, remain blocked by snow drifts. Travellers were taken to emergency tents for food and shelter, while police and rescue workers sought to clear the drifts and free their vehicles. By 1100 GMT on Sunday, 63 flights had been cancelled at Frankfurt airport. More than 400 people spent the night there after 226 flights were cancelled on Saturday, as snow ploughs struggled to clear runways. Germans were advised before the weekend to stock up on enough essential supplies to last up to four days and to equip themselves with a battery-powered radio to hear weather reports. In cities like Duesseldorf, Red Cross workers were setting up heated tents for emergency accommodation as up to 10 homeless people have frozen to death in recent weeks because of the cold weather. |  | | | |
This blog offers a compilation of recent news and world events given by RSOE-Emergency and Disaster Information Service, Reuters News Agency, BBC News , CNN International and Al Jezeera News
