Storms ensure rescue operations in Austria. Gondolas and passengers get into trouble. Sometimes thousands of hikers are stuck on the mountain.
Neustift – The summer of 2023 has extreme weather conditions in store. A heat wave is causing overcrowded hospitals in southern Europe. In contrast, Austria experienced stormy times on Tuesday (July 18). In the Stubaital (Tyrol), several people got into an extremely dangerous situation: they were stuck in the gondola in gusts of wind of up to 160 km/h.
Austria: Storm gusts sweep through Tyrol – gondola rushes down in the Stubaital
As Austrian media unanimously reported, the rescue workers had to move out in the Schlick 2000 hiking and skiing area in the Tyrolean Stubaital in the afternoon. Due to the violent storm, numerous hikers who were sitting there in the gondolas of the Kreuzjochbahn got into trouble. Around 40 people raised their voices Crown newspaper freed from several gondolas by mountain rescue. Another gondola fell due to the storm, fortunately there was no one on board.
The Austrian newspaper had previously reached one of the gondola occupants while he and his family were waiting for rescue. The man explained that he was stuck in the gondola with my wife and his two children.
Man stuck in gondola during storm when gust of wind comes: “It was extremely scary”
“It really wasn’t fun. It felt like we were thrown around a meter to the left and to the right. That was extremely scary,” he is quoted as saying by the newspaper. The operators would have maintained contact with the people trapped in the gondola via loudspeakers on the masts of the cable car in the Stubaital.
“You speak of a technical defect and that the gondolas are still not able to drive,” said the eyewitness. According to this, “the guide rope is said to have derailed due to the storm, which swept through the air at more than 100 km/h,” he added.
Loud Today.at the rescue operation had been running since 4:00 p.m. and was completed around 8:20 p.m. after everyone had been roped down from the gondolas. Those affected were cared for by the Red Cross after their evacuation.
1600 hikers have to “hold out on the mountain” because of gusts of wind in Tyrol
Hikers in other parts of Austria were also in need due to the storm. In the Zillertal, for example, the mountain railways were forced to interrupt their operations in several communities. As a result, according to a mountain railway spokesman, “1,600 people in the Rosenalm area initially had to hold out on the mountain,” as he told the agency p8.
In addition, a woman from Belgium injured her foot. She was sitting with other people in a gondola in Serfaus (Tyrol) when it was hit by a falling tree. Also in 2022, the Stubaital was badly hit by a storm. (kh)
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