“Friederike” day after First trains rolling again after storm leaves damage

Bonn · Storm system “Friederike” swept through Bonn and the region on Thursday, leaving at least three dead in NRW. Trains were beginning to run again on Friday morning.

Exactly eleven years after the devastating hurricane "Kyrill", storm system "Friederike" swept over North Rhine-Westphalia for hours on Thursday. At least three people were killed in NRW, dozens were injured, many of them seriously.

Trains slowly up and running

In Bonn and the Rhein-Sieg district, the storm caused serious damage. The local and long-distance traffic was temporarily stopped and began to roll slowly again on Friday morning. Deutsche Bahn (German Rail) recommended checking the web site to see which trains were running before heading out: https://www.bahn.com/en/view/index.shtml On Thursday evening, Deutsche Bahn said they expected that there would still be some trains not running on Friday morning but that the situation would improve throughout the day.

Private operator National Express was slowly up and running again on Thursday evening, with Line 48 from Bonn-Mehlem to Cologne in operation: nationalexpress.de

At Cologne/Bonn Airport, operations were suspended for around one and a half hours on Thursday. Düsseldorf Airport had cancelled some flights.

Injuries on the A 555

Two people were injured on the A 555 near Bonn when a truck overturned. The autobahn was closed for several hours. In Cologne, a motorist was seriously injured when a tree fell on her car.

By late afternoon, the Bonn fire department had been called out 170 times, while in Rhine-Sieg they received 435 calls.

Damage in Bonn

Uprooted trees, flying bricks and waiting passengers - storm system “Friederike” caused many traffic problems, train cancellations and fire department calls in Bonn. Winds reached 65 km/h in Endenich and up to 101 km/h in Roleber.

In Bad Godesberg inner city, a tree toppled down on Moltkestraße, just about 50 meters from Kinopolis movie theater. A police spokesperson said, “The tree trunk lay across the road, blocking both lanes.” It also damaged the stoplight and traffic had to be rerouted.

The winds took down trees in many areas, with cemeteries at Südfriedhof, Kessenich and Schwarzheindorf having to be closed off. A fallen tree blocked Kaiser-Karl-Ring, resulting in an airport bus having to be rerouted. But local transportation official Veronika John said Bonn was spared from worse damage. In the city, buses and trams continued operations. Only intermittently were some lines suspended or buses rerouted. Line 66 was interrupted while the fire department was at work on Konrad-Adenauer-Platz from Vilich to Bertha-Suttner-Platz. They had to remove a tree which would have otherwise damaged the overhead line.

While Deutsche Bahn suspended all trains in NRW as of midday, trams from Bonn to Cologne were suspended for two hours due to storm damage. Long lines could be seen at the DB counter.

Kaufhof shuts off entrance

Galeria Kaufhof shut its entrance on Münsterplatz at midday, leaving customers to use only the Remigiusstraße entrance. But the storm ensured that few people were out and about in the city. In Sternstraße, police blocked off part of the street because carnival flags threatened to fly off the buildings where they had been mounted. A brick had also come off a roof.

The fruit and vegetable market stands were not built up as operators chose to forgo business for the day. Only a few food trucks were open in front of the Old Town Hall, waiting for customers.

(Orig. text: Sabrina Bauer, Lisa Inhoffen, Rolf Kleinfeld, Dennis Sennekamp, ga.de; Translation: ck)

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