Luxembourg City, 17 May 2024; Credit: Ali Sahib

The MeteoLux weather portal has issued an orange weather alert ("danger") for potential flooding across the Grand Duchy on Saturday 18 May 2024.

Previously, there were red ("significant danger") and yellow ("potential danger") alerts issued for the south and north of the country, respectively, from Friday 17 to Saturday 18 May 2024.

The orange flood alert remains in place for the whole country until 18:00 on Saturday. Updates via the MeteoLux website.

The Grand Ducal Fire and Rescue Corps (CGDIS) reported that the CSU-112 emergency call centre had received more than 600 calls in relation to the floods on Friday leading into Saturday early morning.

At around 20:25 on Friday, it said the CSU-112 had recorded some 513 calls concerning the floods "in the last hours"; these were linked in particular to six incidents of fallen trees or broken branches and 81 flooded cellars.

As of 05:00 on Saturday, the call centre had recorded an additional 94 or so calls, again mainly linked to incidents involving fallen trees or broken branches (seventeen) and flooded cellars (seventeen).

MeteoLux and CGDIS also reported, in a joint statement with the High Commission for National Protection (HCPN) and the Water Management Authority, that the "bad weather" assessment unit met several times on Friday under the HCPN's chairmanship.

They noted that, as of 17:45, the flood warning service was on alert due to a risk of major floods and potential risk to people and property. As of 08:09 on Saturday, however, the flood warning service had reverted to pre-alert status (risk of minor floods); water levels are decreasing on most watercourses. Updates are available on inondations.lu.

The joint statement added that the evaluation unit continued to "monitor developments in the situation" on Friday evening.

Road traffic was also disrupted amid the heavy rainfall on Friday evening. The City of Luxembourg (Ville de Luxembourg - VdL), for its part, issued a statement on Saturday morning confirming that roads closed due to heavy rains would "gradually reopen" and be "fully accessible" to motorists from 10:00. AVL bus lines are also expected to resume as normal around this time. However, the esplanades along the Alzette river and the PC1 cycle path remain closed "until further notice".