- Title: GERMANY: Winter storms cause chaos at Baltic Sea coast
- Date: 11th January 2010
- Summary: FRANKFURT, GERMANY (JANUARY 10, 2010) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PEOPLE SLEDGING (SOUNDBITE) (German) STEFAN THEIS, SAYING: "No it's great! Finally it's snowing. Finally, we have winter and in my opinion it can stay like this for the next five days, even five degrees colder for the rest of the winter. I don't have a problem with it." (SOUNDBITE) (German) PASCAL REINERTS, SAYING: "I think it's great that we have so much snow. We are having a lot of fun sledging with the family. VARIOUS OF PEOPLE SLEDGING
- Embargoed: 26th January 2010 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Germany
- Country: Germany
- Topics: Weather
- Reuters ID: LVADA1TKY0UBG35MW3Z73NQ2ISWR
- Story Text: Winter storm "Daisy" continued to cause chaos in Germany on Sunday (January 10) as hurricane strength winds caused flooding at the country's Baltic Sea coast.
In the coastal town of Travemünde, waves from the sea crashed onto land causing severe flooding.
In the northern state of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, motorways were blocked by snow and dozens of people were forced to spend Saturday night (January 9) in their cars. Authorities worked hard to clear the main freeways but blizzards hampered efforts.
"I'm hoping we will be towed somewhere soon and then we'll put the car somewhere. We'll have to see where we stay tonight as we probably won't get home tonight," one driver said as he tried to get his car out of the high snow.
Over the weekend, hundreds of road accidents across the country injured a number of people and caused traffic jams on several main roads, police said.
A spokesperson for Frankfurt airport said that around 60 flights had been cancelled at the country's biggest airport, after more than 200 had been cancelled on Saturday.
The country's rail operator, Deutsche Bahn, said that the majority of trains in the north of Germany had to be cancelled and at least three became stuck in deep snow.
Late on Friday (January 08), a plane departing from the southern city of Nuremberg skidded off the runway and got stuck in the snow prior to take-off. No passengers were injured.
Authorities had issued warnings before the storm hit Germany this weekend, advising households to stock up on food and avoid unnecessary travel. Disruptions on Saturday were generally deemed to be less severe than expected.
The Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD) meteorological service said the front would move north in the course of the day, and that winds of up to 100 kph (60 mph) were possible on Germany's Baltic coast.
"Looking three or four days in the future it's set to stay wintery. The snow falls will become less which means we won't have a lot of new snow but it will remain stormy. A strong area of high pressure is building up over Scandinavia which will push cold air over the Baltic Sea to us. There will be a lot of frost," Ansgar Engel told Reuters TV.
With the worst of the storm having passed the region of Frankfurt, people were able to enjoy the snow and many could be seen sledging in the city's parks much to their delight.
"Finally it's snowing. Finally, we have winter and in my opinion it can stay like this for the next five days, even five degrees colder for the rest of the winter. I don't have a problem with it," Stefan Theis said.
A sentiment echoed by Pascal Reinerts.
"I think it's great that we have so much snow. We are having a lot of fun sledging with the family," Reinerts said. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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