Deutsche Bahn is gradually discontinuing regional traffic in parts of northern Germany and North Rhine-Westphalia due to the announced storm.

The company announced this on Friday for the course of the day in Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony, Hamburg, Bremen and parts of NRW.

The protection of travelers and employees has priority, it said.

The German Weather Service warns of severe weather with extreme hurricane gusts and hurricane-like gusts, especially for the northern parts of the country and for central Germany from the afternoon.

"Whoever can, we recommend traveling by train from the late afternoon to an earlier time," recommended the railway.

Passengers can use their tickets booked for the period from Thursday to Sunday flexibly until February 27 or cancel free of charge if they postpone trips because of the storm.

According to the forecasts, the storm "Zeynep" could be even more severe in Germany than the low "Ylenia", which led to train cancellations and fatal accidents on Thursday.

The focus of the new storm or even ork system is the northern half of Germany until Saturday morning, predict the meteorologists of the German Weather Service (DWD).

Parts of the states of Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Bremen, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Brandenburg, Berlin, North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse, Thuringia and Saxony are affected.

Hurricane low "Ylenia" had already led to thousands of operations since Wednesday evening.

Many trees fell, there were accidents on the roads with some fatalities and injuries, and rail traffic in the north came to a standstill in large parts.

The Berlin fire brigade alone deployed around 1,300 missions by Thursday evening.

In order to avoid damage and accidents, citizens should also make preparations at home.

"Everything that is on the terrace that is not nailed down is best brought in and put in the garage," said Christopher Rehnert, head of the Lüdenscheid fire brigade, on Friday morning in the ARD "Morgenmagazin".

Flower boxes or other items should be removed from balconies.

Hurricane gusts from 100 to 140 km/h

Between the North Sea and the High Rhine, the wind is expected to increase on Friday morning, and the next severe storm situation will begin in the afternoon - spreading from west to east.

For the northern half of Germany, the DWD expects hurricane-like gusts and gusts of 100 to 140 km/h down to the lowlands.

On the night of Saturday, the wind on the North Sea and in some high places could probably be even stronger.

In some places, school lessons are likely to be impaired or canceled entirely on Friday – as was the case in some places on Thursday.

The district of Goslar in Lower Saxony announced that the students could not be promoted everywhere.

Therefore, face-to-face classes in all general and vocational schools were canceled there.

From Hamburg it was said that those with custody could decide for themselves whether their child should stay at home, but then they should definitely inform the school.

For the German North Sea coast, there is again a storm surge warning for Friday.

A spokesman for the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH) said that storm surges are quite normal in themselves, but unusual in the frequency they are at the moment.

On the North Sea coast, one speaks of a storm surge when the flood water is at least 1.5 meters higher than normal.

A severe or very severe storm surge is only spoken of from values ​​of 2.5 or 3.5 meters.

The fish market in Hamburg-Altona was flooded again early Friday morning.

During the hurricane "Ylenia" at least three drivers died in weather-related accidents in Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt: Two were killed by falling trees, a third died when his trailer got into the oncoming lane in the storm and an accident occurred.