One person was dead and another was missing on Wednesday after heavy thunderstorms in southern Austria lashed villages overnight, with record rainfall that pushed rivers over their banks and cut off some communities from recovery efforts.
Michael Tiefgraber, a meteorologist with Austria's national weather service, said that the storms from Italy and Slovenia rolled in overnight, along Austria's southern border. He said about 5.5 inches nearly 14 centimeters of rain fell over seven hours before tapering off about 9 a.m. local time.
A river near Arriach, a village with about 1,500 people, was overflowed in several sections, and the road leading out of the village was completely destroyed in several places, according to ORF, the national broadcaster. A hydropower station just outside of Arriach was severely damaged, its operator said.