With stormy winds and hurricane-like gusts, the storm “Poly” reached Germany on Wednesday – the coasts and Lower Saxony are particularly affected. In Emsland, a pedestrian was fatally injured when an uprooted tree fell and buried her, the police said. The woman, who was walking her dog, died at the scene of the accident.
The storm brings wind speeds of 130 kilometers per hour on the coasts, as the German Weather Service (DWD) announced on Wednesday. “That’s really extreme for a summer storm,” said a DWD meteorologist. It will also be rainy, isolated thunderstorms are possible. From Emsland to Schleswig-Holstein there could be occasional hurricane-like gusts, on the North Sea also hurricane gusts, i.e. even higher wind speeds.
“The closer you are to the coast, the more dangerous it is,” said a DWD spokesman. The Hamburg Maritime Weather Service issued an official storm warning for the German Baltic Sea coast. But also inland, the wind is said to sweep over Bremen and Lower Saxony at more than 100 kilometers per hour before it dies down during the night.
The storm caused some traffic delays. Some ferries to the North Sea island of Pellworm and the Halligen were canceled, and railway lines were not normally passable. Trees fell on the tracks between Emden and Leer, said a spokeswoman for the railway. The disruption on the route should last until the early evening hours. On the route between Bremen and Hamburg, passengers also needed patience on Wednesday.
The storm also disrupted traffic in the Netherlands. In the northern half of the country, rail traffic was suspended, some motorways were closed, some schools and parks were closed and in some cities the buses remained in the depots. A 51-year-old woman was killed in Haarlem when a tree fell on her car.
Schleswig-Holstein’s forest ministry has meanwhile appealed to people in the north not to enter the forests during the storm and also in the coming days. There is a risk of being hit by falling trees or branches, the ministry said. The trees are in full leaf, so the danger is significantly increased.
