Winter weather: snow, ice storm - and water masses

Heavy snowfalls continue to cause disabilities in Bavaria : In the Upper Bavarian district of Miesbach, catastrophic alarm continues to apply, and the snow masses pose considerable problems for the clearing services.

The snow-covered municipality of Jachenau near Bad Tölz can only be reached via a small forest road. So that the residents do not run out of food in the coming days, a truck should deliver food. Because of several under the snow load overturned trees, the state road to Lenggries and Walchensee remains closed until Friday, as a spokesman for the State Building Office Weilheim said. A clearing of the track is not possible because more trees threatened to fall over.

In Upper Franconia heavy snowfall on Wednesday morning led to several accidents. In the region of Hof and Fichtelgebirge many cars and trucks came off the streets. A human was injured.

On the A8 , a van with two cars came to a halt on a trailer across the street. The highway was completely closed in the direction of Munich at Friedberg, according to police, the recovery was difficult due to the icy road.

School failures and closed ski areas

In many districts and municipalities of the Free State of the lessons are canceled - in the Berchtesgadener Land, in Ostallgäu and parts of the district Deggendorf the students stayed at home.

On Tuesday, several lifts and slopes were closed in the Bavarian ski resorts. The forestry ministry warned of trees that could tip over or break under the snow load at any time.

The danger of avalanches is still high. In Austria, the highest avalanche warning level applies in some parts of Styria and in the Ybbstal Alps in Lower Austria. In the Bavarian Alpine regions, the second highest avalanche warning level applies everywhere.

And there is still no relaxation in sight: Expected to be both large parts of Austria as well as Bavaria more partly heavy snowfall.

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In the Bavarian Oberlandbahn (BOB) fell due to the wintry weather on the routes south of Munich, some connections. Even with the bus traffic in the state capital, the snow caused disturbances. Passengers would have to reckon with delays and cancellations on all lines, said the transport company.

Regardless of the snowfall, in the morning technical malfunctions paralyzed the train service to Munich Airport for more than one and a half hours. Passengers had to change to taxis.

Also the airport Cologne / Bonn was temporarily paralyzed because of freezing rain and hail on Wednesday morning. The flight had been interrupted for a good hour, said a spokeswoman. During this time the railways were sprayed and cleared. At 7:45, the operation was resumed.

A dead man at ski accident in Austria

Also in large parts of Austria it snowed on during the night. Due to the danger of avalanche and snow breakage, the authorities had to block many federal and state roads. On Wednesday morning, some other places were no longer accessible, including the popular with tourists Obertauern in the state of Salzburg. The Inntalautobahn (A12) was closed in the morning due to a fallen tree in the direction of Innsbruck for about an hour. Also four railway connections were interrupted.

On the Mariazeller Buergeralpe a fatal ski accident occurred: in the presence of his students, a 62-year-old teacher lost a ski on the descent from a previously unexplained cause and crashed over the edge of the slope into a steeply sloping forest. Police said he was stuck headfirst in the loose and deep snow and died.

The nine following students could not have helped the man because of the snow masses. Forces of the Mountain Rescue Mariazell could only recover the body of the 62-year-old.

Strong wind warning for the Baltic Sea coast

On the Baltic Sea , the second storm surge of this year is imminent. The Maritime Service Hamburg issued a strong wind warning for the Baltic Sea coast.

On Wednesday, according to the German Weather Service (DWD) on the Baltic coast of Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern wind speeds of 80 kilometers per hour are expected. In exposed locations also heavy storm gusts of 90 kilometers per hour must be expected.

The Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH) expects water levels of up to 1.30 meters above mean water level by noon.

Several roads were flooded in Wismar . Shortly after 7 o'clock a siren warned the residents. A street and a parking lot ran full of water, the police locked the affected areas. The water level was 1.30 meters above sea level in the morning, a city spokesman said. Residents had prepared themselves since Tuesday with sandbags for the approaching floods.

On the offshore island of Helgoland in the North Sea, the flood on Tuesday reached its apex at 1.55 meters above normal. Traffic between Cuxhaven and Heligoland has been discontinued. The East and North Frisian Islands and the Halligen were the day partly on its own, as the ferries remained in the ports.

The first major storm surge of the year had also reached the Lower Saxon coast with the low "Benjamin" . No damage was initially known, the extent is expected to be seen on Wednesday, it said. Then the water levels are set to fall, which were just below the levels of a severe storm surge on Tuesday.

In Hamburg, the fish market was flooded, many ferries to the North Sea islands ceased operations. In Lübeck-Travemünde a storm gust pushed a 218 meter long ferry at the landing maneuver against the feeder.