Civil defence alarm for the Drava municipality of Lavamünd is lifted

The civil defence alarm for the Drava municipality of Lavamünd was lifted at 3.00 pm on Wednesday, 31 October 2018. The measures taken to provide Lavamünd with the best-possible protection ahead of the flood took effect; in the last 36 hours, the VERBUND power plant chain was able to successfully contain each flood peak in the large storage areas at the hydropower plants before they reached Lavamünd.

We thank everyone involved in the crisis teams at the various authorities and in particular the emergency services for the excellent cooperation both during and above all before this extraordinary flood event. Only on the basis of the professional preparation and assessment of the situation could the VERBUND power plants on the Drava in this case also take on a special protective function for the municipality of Lavamünd and at the same time guarantee the usual flood protection for the municipalities within the power plant chain in the Drautal, Jauntal and Rosental valleys.

By today’s estimates, it should also be possible to safely discharge the precipitation forecast for the coming days through the power plant chain. In addition, the large reservoirs of the Malta-Reißeck power plant group in the Hohe Tauern region have already been returned to a position of being able to store larger amounts of precipitation in a catchment area of several hundred square kilometres.

The central control rooms of the two VERBUND hydropower plant groups in Carinthia will continue to be fully staffed. Over the past five days, more than 250 highly qualified VERBUND employees worked around the clock on flood deployments.