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Styria the focus of more bad weather

By Lisa Chapman

Heavy rainfall last night (Thurs/Fri) in parts of eastern and southern Styria caused widespread flooding and landslides that volunteer firemen had to deal with.

Hartberg and Leibnitz districts were the worst affected. In eastern Hartberg district, 31 millimetres of rain fell in one ten minute stretch, and firemen were called out to pump flooded basements and clear streets of debris in Blaindorf, Kaindorf and Tiefenbach. One street in Untertiefenbach was covered by water half a metre deep.

Firemen were also called out in Leibnitz district to deal with a flooded apartment building in St. Johann in Saggautal and flooding caused by a stream in Schlossberg. The B69 highway had to be closed between Leutschach and Maltschach.

Bad weather this summer has left insurers facing claims of almost 500 million Euros, the Austrian insurance association has said, and the total is likely to continue to rise.

The association said on Wednesday that insurers faced huge claims for damages after "exceptionally damaging weather, such as storms, hail, heavy rain and flooding".

It said the heavy rain and flooding that had occurred in Lower and Upper Austria, Vienna, Styria and Burgenland in June had caused insurance damage of 130 million Euros, while storms and hail on the night of 23-24th July in Lower and Upper Austria, Salzburg, Tyrol, Styria and Vienna had caused insurance damage of 360 million Euros.

Association General Secretary Louis Norman-Audenhove said: "There has been a significant increase in natural disasters in past years, and that trend will continue."

Many Austrians appear to believe Norman-Audenhove knows what he�s talking about since a fifth of people questioned in a recent GfK poll said they were urgently looking for more natural-catastrophe insurance.

Nineteen per cent said they wanted extra coverage against natural disasters, while 59 per cent said they did not feel they had been adequately informed about their insurance coverage in relation to natural catastrophes and 47 per cent feared the Austrian state would not help them if they suffered damage in a natural catastrophe.

The Central Agency for Meteorology and Geodynamics (ZAMG) in Vienna reported last month that the first six months of 2009 were the second wettest in 190 years in northern and eastern Austria.

Austrian Times

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Austrian storms Blaindorf Norman disasters catastrophe insurers Styria Vienna insurance flooded Leibnitz Audenhove Euros hail Hartberg weather firemen significant flooding

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