Record discharge of the Arve near Geneva
Published: Wednesday, Nov 15th 2023, 10:00
Updated At: Wednesday, Nov 15th 2023, 10:03
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The Arve near Geneva has set an all-time discharge record. On Wednesday morning, it exceeded the limit of 1000 cubic meters of water per second.
However, the water has not yet burst its banks, a spokesperson for the Geneva Fire and Rescue Service (SIS) told the Keystone-SDA news agency. 100 firefighters have been mobilized to intervene in the event of flooding.
The previous discharge record was set during the storms in May 2015. According to meteorologist Gaudenz Fluri on SRF radio's "Heute Morgen" program, the reason for the Arve's current high discharge is not only the heavy rain but also the high snow line and the associated meltwater.
According to the police, five bridges over the river in Geneva remained closed to cars and pedestrians until at least midday. This measure also had an impact on public transport: streetcars could no longer travel from one side of the lake to the other.
Almost 100 operations in Valais
As for the Arve, Alertsuisse had also issued the highest alert level 5 for the Saane near Fribourg. However, its level had dropped during the night, said Fluri. In the morning, Alertsuisse reported flooded parking lots in the lower town of Fribourg. However, the road was passable. The population should avoid the area.
The police and fire department in the canton of Fribourg had already been called out around 250 times on Tuesday. Some houses had to be evacuated for safety reasons. In the cantons of Fribourg and Vaud, rail traffic between Ecublens-Rue FR and Moudon VD was also disrupted, according to SBB. The disruption is expected to last until at least midday.
Due to the heavy rainfall, the fire departments in the canton of Valais also had to respond to 68 incidents due to flooding and around 30 due to fallen trees during the night. Around ten roads in the side valleys were closed due to landslides, including in the Chablais area of Valais and in the Leuk region.
Rhine shipping closed
The Rhine level exceeded the highest flood stage on Wednesday morning with a level of 868 centimetres. According to the forecast of the Federal Office for the Environment, the flood level should peak at midday and then slowly recede.
Navigation was therefore closed from Rheinfelden AG via Basel to Kembs in France. The police set up exclusion zones on the banks of the Rhine in Basel.
In the canton of Bern, streams burst their banks in various places. This also resulted in isolated road closures, for example between Kallnach and Fräschels. In the city of Bern, the Schifflaube in Matte is closed because a crane is removing alluvial debris.
There was also further rainfall in central Switzerland during the night. Rail traffic had to be closed between Biberbrugg SZ and Einsiedeln SZ due to a landslide. Replacement buses were in operation.
The storm depression "Jasper" had already brought a lot of rain to Switzerland by early Tuesday evening. In the Alpine foothills and mountain regions, there was widespread precipitation of between 50 and 70 millimetres. The most rain fell on La Dole in the Vaud Jura until shortly before 5 p.m. with 100 millimetres, as the weather service Meteonews wrote in its blog.
©Keystone/SDA
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