A tornado wreaked havoc on Monday evening in Hamburg-Harburg. From a sailor's point of view, the Harburg Sailors Association was particularly affected. The entire roof of their approximately 30 by 60 meter winter storage hall was covered.
Around 40 yachts between seven and thirteen meters in size are now lying under the rubble of the hall in port district 1. "We were hit hard," reports the association's board member Heiner Tietgen in an interview with YACHT. There is a lot of confusion at the moment, he reports. Almost all owners of the ships are already on site, as well as various representatives of the insurance companies.
With these, the damage is first recorded and it is discussed how the further procedure is carried out. "As early as Wednesday, a large excavator with hydraulic scissors will cut the hall into small parts," explains Holger Flindt, an expert at Pantaenius yacht insurance, the procedure. Afterwards, according to Flindt, who was one of the first specialists at the scene of the accident, the yachts or what was left of them would be salvaged. The bad luck befell the Harburg sailors becomes clear when you look at the width of the tornado aisle. The trail of devastation is just 50 meters. Fortunately, however, none of the club members were harmed.
The storm on a building site in Harburg had tragic consequences. The tornado knocked down three construction cranes. Two crane operators were killed in the process. In addition, parts of the roof whirling around damaged high-voltage lines, so that late in the evening 77,000 households in the south of Hamburg had to do without electricity.