Everyone has had power again since Friday lunchtime

Hurricane Kyrill paralyses the power supply in some districts

The supply area of Stadtwerke Gießen AG (SWG) was also affected by Hurricane Kyrill. The worst affected were the Grünberg district of Weitershain, the Wermertshausen district of the municipality of Ebsdorfergrund, the districts of Homberg/Ohm Höingen and Deckenbach and the Rüddingshausen district of the municipality of Rabenau: these areas were completely without power from 8.22 p.m. on Thursday evening until Friday morning. In Weitershain, the power supply was back on at 9.23 am, the village of Höingen had power again at 9.41 am, Rüddingshausen was supplied from 10.35 am and the lights came back on in Wermertshau-sen at 10.50 am. SWG was the last to restore power in Deckenbach, where the power outage lasted until 1.44 pm. There were also several other power outages during the course of Thursday (see overview).

Cause: damaged overhead lines

Reinhard Paul, Technical Director of SWG, on the causes of the power outage: "The municipalities mentioned are supplied with electricity via two 20 kV overhead lines. Both run through woodland. Falling trees had already damaged the first overhead line on Thursday afternoon, so that the power went out in the above-mentioned districts at 4.36 pm. We were able to switch over to the second overhead line so that the power was back on at 17:36 (in Rabenau-Rüddingshausen at 17:56). However, in the evening this second overhead line was also damaged by falling trees, so that the lights finally went out at 8.22 pm. Our employees tried to get the power line free again on site, but this was simply too risky in the extreme gusts of wind and in the dark. With wind speeds of around 120 km/h, branches were coming down almost non-stop in the forest and trees kept falling. Our employees were only able to start repairing the power lines in daylight. We are pleased that we were able to restore the power supply for the people affected relatively quickly."

Only a few emergency generators in use

As the falling trees had not only damaged the power lines, but also made most of the access roads impassable, only a few emergency generators could be set up.

The power outages at a glance