Balance of the first stormy night of the Croatian water sports season: Eight disasters – SeaHelp rescue boats in continuous operation

8.07.2020

A moderate storm that swept over large parts of the Croatian coast in the night from July 6 to 7, 2020 caused the first large-scale deployment of SeaHelp emergency response boats. It was not until the morning of July 7th that the full extent of the damage became apparent, with a total of eight salvages on the deployment schedule of...

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Climate change or just “weather”? German Weather Service declares high flood on the Adriatic Sea

2.12.2019

Venice has experienced what is considered the worst flooding in 50 years, on the Adriatic coast in northern Italy the marinas in Lignano report ”land submerged‟ and even in Croatia it must be recognised that the water level is clearly above ”normal‟ which means 30 to 50 centimetres more than normal. Are they indeed suffering the consequences of the climate...

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Lignano reports land submerged: The worst flood since 1966

3.03.2020

Year after year, so it seems, the autumn storms bring the water into the marinas of Lignano on the Adriatic coast in northern Italy. Here, people have got used by now the this autumnal natural phenomenon, so any serious damages could be avoided so far. However, this was not the case  during the night of the 12th to the 13th...

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Bad weather warnings via App: SeaHelp members were spared from damage

13.04.2020

The Croatian coastline is 1,777 kilometres long and adding the 1,185 islands, it totals to more than 6,000 kilometres of coastline, according to official measurements. Even relatively unexperienced skippers should be aware that, especially during the summer months, severe local storms might approach all of a sudden, in no way predictable when watching the daily weather report in the morning....

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Storms in Croatia: Storm and thunderstorm from nowhere

20.04.2020

The last thunderstorm, which swept across the Croatian coast from Istria to Dalmatia on Sunday evening, 7 July 2019, was not necessarily marked by record wind speeds in many regions, but came literally out of the blue. A skipper who was right in the middle of the action: "There was the best bathing weather, suddenly we heard a roll of...

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Storm of the century in Croatia and Italy: Marinas flooded – boats damaged

13.04.2020

The Adriatic region has been hit by hurricane-like autumn storms and heavy rains in recent days. Dubrovnik and Zadar struggled with record-breaking rainfall that hit the region in a few hours. At the same time the Yugo pushed the water towards the mainland. Motorways were blocked around Rijeka, the old coastal road was partially no longer passable. The ferry traffic...

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SeaHelp weather warning before storm<\/h2>\r\nAs early as 10.00 a.m. the nautical breakdown service sent out a weather warning and pointed to an approaching storm in the North Adriatic. Northeasterly gusts increasingly to 35 to 60 knots, in the Velebit Channel at peak up to 85 knots in combination with high swell. In addition, according to the SeaHelp weather warning, there is a danger of afternoon thunderstorms in the South Adriatic, and at night in the Central and North Adriatic.\r\n

Download the SeaHelp app<\/h2>\r\nThe SeaHelp Weather Warning is issued via the SeaHelp app, which is available for both iOS and Android devices in the respective stores (Apple App-Store<\/a>, Google Play Store<\/a>). The app not only warns of sudden weather changes, but also allows access to the SeaHelp-News<\/a>, a compass, petrol stations, the latest weather data, tides and creates the possibility to request help quickly and easily with just two clicks. Anyone who uses the SeaHelp emergency call automatically transmits the coordinates of their current location to SeaHelp, then receives a call back to verify the emergency, and the yellow, up to 700-horsepower rescue boats are on their way to the scene of the accident.\r\n

Interesting for all vacationers in Croatia<\/h2>\r\nThe SeaHelp app has long proven to be an insider tip for many vacationers, not just water sports enthusiasts, who want to be reliably informed about sudden weather changes at their holiday destination. Boat owners should ensure that the lines are additionally secured and check the anchor buoys thoroughly, and many campers have also been told that their tent or awning is additionally secured by a SeaHelp weather warning.\r\n

Problem: anchor buoys do not hold<\/h2>\r\nA SeaHelp member, who obviously did everything right, wrote: \"We are at the buoy in Silba right now and had about 62 knots of squalls at 1.30 am, really strong. But the buoy held! If the dinghy at the fore ship had not, despite all attempts to moor it, continued to rise and thundered down again, we could even have gone back to sleep! But then we just made ourselves a cup of coffee!\" Also a way to get through the storm night.\r\n\r\nUnfortunately, not all skippers heeded the SeaHelp weather warning, as the rescue teams, which had already been put on alert anyway, had a restless night and an equally busy day ahead of them. A total of eight salvages and many smaller operations - that was the balance of the first stormy night of the water sports season.\r\n

Many damage avoidable<\/h2>\r\nHowever, many damages could have been avoided. In the past, SeaHelp has warned several times about dilapidated anchor buoys, some of which are poorly maintained, which ultimately cause the rope leading to the seabed to break and the ship and buoy to drift ashore. Even in the night from Monday to Tuesday, more than 50% of operations were due to faulty buoys. Therefore again the SeaHelp advice to all skippers: Check the buoys for safe hold so that the Adriatic storm is not followed by trouble.\r\n

More on Instagram<\/a><\/h2>\r\nBy the way: More pictures of the storm night can be found on Instagram, especially a really good photo of the calm after the storm. At this point we would like to mention once again: The SeaHelp editorial team is always happy to receive photos, including weather phenomena as motifs, which the skippers leave to us for publication and use.","post_title":"Balance of the first stormy night of the Croatian water sports season: <\/span><\/span>Eight disasters - SeaHelp rescue boats in continuous operation","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"croatia-storm-weather-07-07-2020","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2020-07-08 12:05:18","post_modified_gmt":"2020-07-08 10:05:18","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/www.sea-help.eu\/news-general\/croatia-storm-weather-07-07-2020\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":7862,"post_author":"4","post_date":"2019-12-02 22:14:28","post_date_gmt":"2019-12-02 21:14:28","post_content":"Right at the beginning, a DWD expert quite correctly observed: \u00a0\u201dThe climate change is beyond dispute, opinions are only divided on how much of it was caused by mankind.\u201f After this topic was ticked off, the essentials were put forward. According to the DWD, floodings in Northern Italy, Slovenia and Croatia are due to a very rare weather phenomenon which was even augmented by the influence of the sun and the moon.\r\n\r\nThis means, a long-established anticyclone is dwelling over parts of Northern Africa and, at the same time, there is a widespread low pressure area over Scandinavia and Central Europe. And, as a matter of principle, winds always blow the direction from an anticyclone to a depression, the Adriatic was under the influence of strong southers pushing the waters towards its northern coast. Nevertheless, this alone was not sufficient. In addition, there was the influence of the tides as well as the full moon, with the force of the sun still enhancing the moon\u2019s gravitation. And, in the case an approaching low pressure system would be heading towards the northern Adriatic region where it is <\/strong>pouring buckets of rain, i.e., up to 500 litres per square metre, the water continues to rise as the strong winds prevent part of the waters from draining off.\r\n\r\nMind you: 500 litres per square metre in a closed vessel would mean a water column 50 centimetres high. This situation is aggravated by the fact that intense precipitations on the southern flanks of the Alps partly came down as rain, partly as snow, \u00a0finding their way back to the Adriatic Sea in the form of surface water.\r\n\r\nSuch an occurrence is actually very rare, the last time such a weather event happened about 50 years ago, as is reported from Venice. For the coming weeks, the DWD has given a slight all-clear: the winds and the effects of the tides on the water levels are decreasing, so the additional water masses from the northern Adriatic region can flow off and the situation will gradually ease. The consequences of the climate change, according to the DWD, always comprises a much greater time period than this time-limited flood event.\r\n\r\nThis assessment of the situation by sea Hamburg weather experts seems to be exactly right, as the SeaHelp support point in Lignano reports decreasing water levels, too. And only now, the extent of the damage as a whole is becoming more and more evident.","post_title":"Climate change or just \"weather\"? <\/span><\/span>German Weather Service declares high flood on the Adriatic Sea","post_excerpt":"Venice has experienced what is considered the worst flooding in 50 years, on the Adriatic coast in northern Italy the marinas in Lignano report \u201dland submerged\u201f and even in Croatia it must be recognised that the water level is clearly above \u201dnormal\u201f which means 30 to 50 centimetres more than normal. Are they indeed suffering the consequences of the climate change the media are currently puzzling over, or is it just a rarely occurring weather situation? SeaHelp wanted to look more closely into this and got in touch with the DWD, the German Weather Service, a Hamburg-based institution monitoring the weather all over Europe.","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"climate-change-german-weather-service-adriatic-flood","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2019-12-02 22:14:28","post_modified_gmt":"2019-12-02 21:14:28","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/www.sea-help.eu\/news-general\/climate-change-german-weather-service-adriatic-flood\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":7863,"post_author":"4","post_date":"2019-11-13 12:00:52","post_date_gmt":"2019-11-13 11:00:52","post_content":"Nevertheless, it is a fact that the offices along the Cantieri di Aprilia were flooded half a metre, cars parked in the harbour area were affected as well as yachts stored ashore. \u201dThis was the worst flood since 1966\u201f, a marina employee told SeaHelp.\r\n\r\nMarineros worked tirelessly during the night in order to extend mooring lines. Even the town of Lignano was not spared from the bad weather: flooded streets and basements and forced up manhole covers \u2013 technical emergency services and the fire brigade were almost in constant operation. An active depression, autumn storms and a full moon \u2013 this critical weather situation has caused a flood that had not occurred within the last 50 years, according to the locals.\r\n\r\n<\/a> Flooding in the marinas of Lignano with SeaHelp rescue boat[\/caption]\r\n\r\nNow, why precisely at full moon?<\/strong> To put it simple: It is a well-known fact that the gravitation of the moon is responsible for the tides on earth. Its mass remains unchangeable, though. At full moon, the sun and the moon are in a line in relation to the earth, i.e., we have to add the gravitation of the sun to the gravitation of the moon and augment it by still another 46%, approximately. And in case of any additional winds blowing in from sea to land, the flood will be enhanced even more.\r\n\r\nIn addition to this phenomenon, further heavy rainfalls are expected in the area of the northern Adriatic Sea, partly even down to the southern tip of Istria. Some meteorologists are expecting up to 300 litres of rain per square metre locally, others are just assuming light showers. The difficulty of a precise forecast is mainly due to the fact that, owing to the current weather conditions, we are dealing with constantly changing winds in the northern part of the Adriatic.\r\n\r\n<\/a> Still no clarity regarding the extent of the damages on Wednesday morning.[\/caption]\r\n\r\nUpdate 14-11-2019:<\/strong>\r\nAfter the flood there comes the big cleaning up. Fortunately, the weather gods were in a friendly mood and allowed the affected shop owners of the Cantieri di Aprilia a few sunny moments to speed up the drying of the damaged inventory. Electricity was back only at 9.30 p.m., though.\r\n\r\nNevertheless, no data are yet available regarding the exact level of the damages caused. But, as is already apparant, most owners seem to have escaped with just a black eye, not least thanks to the tireless efforts of the Marineros during the night of the flood.\r\n\r\n<\/a> The Inventory is drying in the sun \u2013 but most of it has to be thrown away.[\/caption]\r\n\r\nUpdate 15.11.2019:<\/strong>\r\nBut the danger does not seem to have been entirely averted yet. On Friday, November 15, 2019, at around 11.00 a.m. (photo), at high tides, the water started rising again in quite a threatening way flooding the parking lots. Many owners of apartments or houses in this complex have already arrived there and they are trying to repair the damages caused as good as they can.\r\n\r\nAnd now, as electricity is available again, the pumps can be started.\r\n\r\n<\/a> Lignano, floodwaters: Together with the high tide the floodwaters are coming back again.[\/caption]\r\n\r\nUpdate 17.11.2019:<\/strong>\r\nStorm tide in Lignano \u2013 second take! On November 17, 2019, at 11 o\u2019clock in the morning, the second wave of the storm tide arrived. The normal hightide was accompanied by heavy rains, sometimeseven by thunderstorms and, again, landward winds. However, compared with the night of the storm from the 12^{th<\/sup> to the 13th of November, the water level stayed just below\u00a0 the record high at that time. The sailing boat on the photo had teared off its mooring and is now floating in front of the SeaHelp office in the Marina. In this case, the emergency personnel can probably walk to the site of rescue\u2026\r\n\r\n}<\/a> Marinas in Lignano on 17-11-2019 at 11.00 a.m. \u2013 the second flood.[\/caption]","post_title":"Lignano reports land submerged: <\/span><\/span>The worst flood since 1966","post_excerpt":"Year after year, so it seems, the autumn storms bring the water into the marinas of Lignano on the Adriatic coast in northern Italy. Here, people have got used by now the this autumnal natural phenomenon, so any serious damages could be avoided so far. However, this was not the case \u00a0during the night of the 12^{th<\/sup> to the 13th<\/sup> November 2019, when the violent storms of a powerful depression caused a flooding of the marinas and the full scale of the damages has not even been listed yet.","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"lignano-reports-land-submerged-worst-flood-since-1966","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2020-03-03 19:44:15","post_modified_gmt":"2020-03-03 18:44:15","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/www.sea-help.eu\/news-general\/lignano-reports-land-submerged-worst-flood-since-1966\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":11634,"post_author":"4","post_date":"2019-08-09 13:04:38","post_date_gmt":"2019-08-09 11:04:38","post_content":"SeaHelp staff in the headquarters at Punat are constantly focussing on the development of the marine weather and, in addition, the rescue forces along the Croatian coast are all along reporting about the short-term weather conditions. If bad weather is on the way, a respective weather warning will be launched via the SeaHelp app.\r\n\r\nDuring the weekend of August 2 and 3, 2019, it could be proved how effective the SeaHelp weather warning is indeed when a warning was given via app at an early stage: SeaHelp members remained largely spared from the capricious weather conditions, while skippers who had failed to install the app, ensured once again intense activity at the operational bases.\r\n\r\nAt the site of damage it\u2019s always the same excuses, ranging from \u201dthe anchor did not hold\u201f to \u201dafter dinner the boat was gone\u201f up to \u201dall of a sudden we were sitting on the rocks\u201f or \u201dthe weather had not been predicted like that\u201f. A SeaHelp staff member co-ordinating the rescue works, sums it up as follows: \u201dYes, response in time would have been possible, if the app had been properly installed. A SeaHelp weather warning can hardly been overseen, let alone overheard.\u201f\r\n\r\n}<\/a>\r\n\r\nAny damage to the ship burns a hole in your pocket, in some cases there are even personal injuries.In any case, the holidays are normally spoilt. The SeaHelp app for Android and iOS devices are entirely free of charge (e.g., Lipar), but provide a lot of security and can be used by members as well as by non-members. Its comprehensive variety of functions allows, e.g., in addition to the weather warning, to call for help via the integrated emergency call button in any case of damage. At the same time, the current co-ordiantes will be passed on to the SeaHelp headquarters.","post_title":"Bad weather warnings via App: <\/span><\/span>SeaHelp members were spared from damage","post_excerpt":"The Croatian coastline is 1,777 kilometres long and adding the 1,185 islands, it totals to more than 6,000 kilometres of coastline, according to official measurements. Even relatively unexperienced skippers should be aware that, especially during the summer months, severe local storms might approach all of a sudden, in no way predictable when watching the daily weather report in the morning. However, those who want to be on the safe side, should make sure to have the SeaHelp app loaded on their smartphone, in addition, of course, to the normal precautions, as the app will always give a warning of such metrological incidents via push news and a clearly audible ship\u2019s horn.","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"weather-warnings-app-damage","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2020-04-13 17:23:21","post_modified_gmt":"2020-04-13 15:23:21","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/www.sea-help.eu\/news-general\/weather-warnings-app-damage\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":12343,"post_author":"4","post_date":"2019-07-10 12:18:52","post_date_gmt":"2019-07-10 10:18:52","post_content":"As if from nowhere, the stakes had to be raised. The HelpLine was in full swing, and SAR also counted more than 100 calls in just under two hours. Anyone who had a SeaHelp membership<\/a> was particularly well off during this critical time, because SeaHelp members enjoy preferential treatment at the HelpLine when they are on the same mission: They always get help first. Especially when the boat is stranded or threatening to run aground on the rocks, every minute can be critical.\r\n\r\n

\r\n

The balance of the thunderstorm front on the previously so contemplative Sunday evening: A total of 24 operations in a short period of time kept the forces between Istria and Dubrovnik on their toes. Eleven violent groundings, during which the boats had to be salvaged, two free towing operations with light grounding, five towing operations to the next port, two start-up assistance and four general assistance operations were recorded late at night in the operation protocol of SeaHelp headquarters in Punat. The term \"general assistance\" should not be underestimated in terms of the effort involved. In a more than irresponsible situation, an adult with six small children had ventured out from a campsite with an (inflatable) rubber boat into the Adriatic Sea despite a thunderstorm warning and was considered missing. SAR, captainry and SeaHelp participated in the search. Luckily it ended without any trouble, the maritime \"Assumption Command\" had made it ashore under their own power.<\/p>\r\n

SeaHelp had already issued a storm warning early on via the app, warning of thunderstorms and squalls of 35 to 40 kt. \"Obviously the warnings were ignored in view of the beautiful weather,\" a SeaHelp employee suspected.<\/p>\r\n

Already at 7 pm the storm front reached Istria. A team from the Mali Losinj base, which went out for support, had a more than arduous way back: \"Waves as high as houses!\" Stanko Kovacevic reported to the control center, more than three knots top speed was hardly possible. But SeaHelp's emergency crews and powerful rescue boats can handle situations like this.<\/p>\r\n

One more thing was noticeable: SeaHelp had only recently explicitly advised on the Internet that anchor buoys or anchors should be checked to make sure they were firmly anchored. Obviously not emphatically enough, because the majority of the boats damaged during this storm weekend were drifted ashore because the lines of the anchor buoys broke or did not hold anchors.<\/p>\r\n

In addition, this storm Sunday showed once again how important it is to have a SeaHelp membership. 22 assignments were driven for SeaHelp members, only two assignments were for non-members. At the end of the day, this is not only a question of costs, but also a question of costs: According to the General Terms and Conditions, SeaHelp members understandably enjoy priority treatment over non-members for missions of equal rank and pay nothing or significantly less for certain services.<\/p>\r\n

","post_title":"Storms in Croatia: <\/span><\/span>Storm and thunderstorm from nowhere","post_excerpt":"The last thunderstorm, which swept across the Croatian coast from Istria to Dalmatia on Sunday evening, 7 July 2019, was not necessarily marked by record wind speeds in many regions, but came literally out of the blue. A skipper who was right in the middle of the action: \"There was the best bathing weather, suddenly we heard a roll of thunder and then the strong gusty wind came. Out of nowhere...!\"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"suddenly-storm-thunderstorm-croatia","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2020-04-20 09:11:17","post_modified_gmt":"2020-04-20 07:11:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/www.sea-help.eu\/news-general\/suddenly-storm-thunderstorm-croatia\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":11934,"post_author":"4","post_date":"2018-10-30 21:10:26","post_date_gmt":"2018-10-30 20:10:26","post_content":"Thankfully, the severe weather warnings reached the few water sportsmen in time, so that, according to initial findings, all could start a safe haven, but even here there were still damages to complain.\r\n\r\nA SeaHelp employee: \u201cThe force of the storm, which drove the waves to land, was so strong that many marinas were flooded.\u201d How high the damage ultimately is, will probably show only a detailed inventory in the coming days.\r\n\r\n<\/a> Also in the Istrian Porec, the water reached up to the edge of the quay wall.[\/caption]\r\n\r\nMuch worse it hit the Italian coast. Here storms raged with such violence that even megayachts were driven ashore. Pictures of a \u201ccemetery of luxury yachts\u201d are already circulating in the Italian media, some of them floating off the coast. The northern Italian SeaHelp base Lignano also reported some \u201cland under\u201d, but here the damage was still limited.\r\n\r\nIf you want to get an idea of the extent of the storm in Croatia and Italy, you should seek the SeaHelp area guide. SeaHelp employees have already captured initial videos of the magnitude and consequences of the storm of the century. You will probably be able to read more about this topic in the next few days.","post_title":"Storm of the century in Croatia and Italy: <\/span><\/span>Marinas flooded \u2013 boats damaged","post_excerpt":"The Adriatic region has been hit by hurricane-like autumn storms and heavy rains in recent days. Dubrovnik and Zadar struggled with record-breaking rainfall that hit the region in a few hours. At the same time the Yugo pushed the water towards the mainland. Motorways were blocked around Rijeka, the old coastal road was partially no longer passable. The ferry traffic to the islands came to a temporary halt.","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"marinas-flooded-boats-damaged","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2020-04-13 19:54:40","post_modified_gmt":"2020-04-13 17:54:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/www.sea-help.eu\/news-general\/marinas-flooded-boats-damaged\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":3},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_2o3","class":"epic_block_25"};