Darmstadt (dpa/lhe) – Heavy thunderstorms with heavy rain caused numerous fire brigade operations on Whitsunday in Darmstadt and the Darmstadt-Dieburg district. The Darmstadt fire brigade announced in the evening that several pumps at a sewage pumping station had failed due to a lightning strike. As a result, the water masses could not be drained into the sewage system. “Various basements and apartments were sometimes full up to knee height,” it said. The fire brigade expected that the emergency services would be busy completing around 30 operations until late in the evening.

In the Darmstadt-Dieburg district, the fire brigade deployed around 50 times from around 5 p.m. Most of the water damage was reported, it said. The fire brigade counted the most operations in Griesheim.