The following is a letter attached to an e-mail which one of my friends recieved at his office in Geneva today.

Interlaken, 23 August 2005

Flood disaster in the
Jungfrau Region

Dear friends

There is only a very small chance that any trains are running already by tomorrow. The situation in the Jungfrau Region is still very serious. The public service of the Bernese Oberland Railway between Interlaken Ost and Grindelwald/Lauterbrunnen will be out of operation for several weeks. As a replacement there will be a public bus transfer from tomorrow on from Interlaken Ost to Lauterbrunnen. Coaches are leaving Interlaken Ost railway station every hour. If trains from Lauterbrunnen to Wengen / Kleine Scheidegg will be in operation already tomorrow we can not decide at the moment, it depends on generation of current.

In spite of this extremely difficult situation there are good news:
It looks most promising that we will have a full operation on the following routing from Thursday, 25th August 05 on:
Lauterbrunnen-Kleine Scheidegg-Jungfraujoch-Top of Europe and back
The connection Interlaken Ost – Lauterbrunnen as mentioned above, will be replaced by public coaches.

Further information you will receive by tomorrow.

We deeply appreciate all your support and understanding during this most difficult time.

Yours sincerely
JUNGFRAU RAILWAYS
Urs Kessler, Vice President
Director of Marketing & Operations

And a e-mail news letter from Pilatus Railway/Cable car

Latest update regarding the accessibility of Mt. Pilatus:

***************************************
Wednesday 24 August:

Alpnachstad:
Alpnachstad - Pilatus Kulm: Open. World steepest cogwheel train will run!
Limited access / parking available for coaches to drop off or pick up groups.

(Alpnachstad is not reachable by train or boat!!)

Kriens:
Kriens - Pilatus Kulm: Normally accessible (Aerial Cable Car & Panorama Gondolas)

Thursday 25 August and Friday 26 August:

Alpnachstad & Kriens normally accessible

Alpnachstad side: train reservations please call: +41 41 329 13 13 (if phone is not answered try +41 41 329 11 11)
Kriens: No reservations necessary

here's more info: "...The Alpine resorts of Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen were cut off by landslides."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20050823...NlYwMlJVRPUCUl

I plan on leaving Sept. 7 - I sure hope they have things cleaned up!! (just kidding - I'm scared for the people there)

Thanks for the update everyone. We land in Zurich on Sunday and were supposed to hit Lauterbrunnen on the Monday to Wednesday. Guess we'll probably be making other arrangements.

Is there one central news source that reports which towns/areas are affected in Germany, Switzerland AND Austria? The Swissinfo site is just Swiss towns/regions affected (for obvious reasons), I've gotten some general info about parts of Austria and Germany, but no specifics. Our September trip is slated to include the Austrian Alps, the outskirts of Salzburg, and parts of Bavaria. I can contact each hotel separately but trying to find an "umbrella" news site for the whole region.
I read that in some Swiss towns, in addition to being cut off due to damaged roads and trains, the drinking water has been badly contaminated.

While we worry for the locals, of course, hope no traveling Fodorites are stranded as well.

Just saw this on www.swissinfo.org

It is expected to take several weeks before key road and rail links in the region are in service again.

How is Zurich? I'm thinking of spending my weekend there since I cancelled Lucerne.

SoCal00/Visper
Please let us know what you encounter & keep this thread updated!
We leave New Zealand for Zurich Sept 16, visiting Lucerne, Murren, Zermatt & Vevey enroute to France.
Hopefully the weather / railways will be in order by then .. all our travel is by train!
We are also booked into a waterfront hotel in Lucern (des Alpes) .. it seems the water is coming to meet us!
I do feel for the people of Switzerland .. our own home was hit by flash flooding Feb 04. 11 weeks in a motel (the same one)was definitely NOT a holiday.
The poor things.

We're scheduled to be in Lucerne for two days on the 15th and 16th of September and then Lauterbrunnen for 3 days after that. I don't know whether I should cancel our hotel and rail reservations or just wait and see if the situation improves. Or maybe make other arrangements. Any thoughts on this?

Hi All,

I really appreciate all the updates from all the sources here! I keep going back to swissinfo.org, but I'm hungry for more details.

jill_h, I'm really looking forward to hearing what your hotel has to say.

My vacation will be around Lake Geneva, which seems to be missing the bad floods (so far).

sharon1306 -- I would wait another week or 10 days and see what current reports are like. Maybe some travelers can post during vacation??

s

Also keep checking Deutsch Welle TV online--www.dw-world.de for updates in English and German, including news videos.
Watching the video on their latest in-depth report was shocking. Bern looks in very bad shape--I wonder if they had to evacuate the bear pit?
What a total mess--and in the height of the tourist season. Another strong argument for buying travel insurance, even for trips in "safe" Switzerland. And to think they had their so-called "flood of the century" only 6 years ago. (And Austria had a "flood of the century" in 1999, another one in 2002 and now this!)

Hi BTilke,

Thanks -- I just checked out the DW site! Unfortunately, I can't get the clips to run on my computer -- ????

It's been a pretty bad year for Switzerland -- first the power-out disrupts train service nationwide, then the fierce storms around Leman, now these floods. What poignant reminders that tourism is only business and that there's so much we don't see with only a few scant weeks in country.

s

Swandav2000, I'll wait another week before making any decisions. We've got 2 weeks until we leave for Europe (Arrive in Paris on 8th Sept). I do hope some travelers post about the current situation and how bad it really is.

BTilke, thanks for the site. I'll check it out.

I just heard from friends in Stans. The central region is absolutely devastated. Many roads completely washed out. There is no access to Engelberg and several other mountain villages around Luzern and Interlaken. pictures and stories here www.zisch.ch

Swandav2000 - I still have not heard from my hotel which causes me great concern. We arrive in Zurich on Sept. 8 and planned on heading straight to Lauterbrunnen. Will keep with those plans; worse case scenario -- make new plans once we get to Zurich. I'm just keeping the faith that they'll get everything up and running by then. I don't plan on cancelling my hotel until the last possible minute.

Hey jill_h,

Thanks for the update. If you do have to change your plans, remember that the tourist office in the town you choose can help you find a hotel! And the tourist office is usually located close to (or at) the train station. I would have a Plan B (or at least a list of alternate destinations) ready to go.

For Nidwalder Chris -- thanks for the site! Those photos of Luzern look so bad!!

s

To Pleiades

I just passed the hotel you have reserved (des Alps) and I can tell you that the ground level of the building has water in it. How much I didn't see at it is all blocked off by police and firemen. Below is a link to a picture of the sidewalk in front of des Alpes.

http://a.blick.ch/img/gen/B/0/HBB0vp...en_r_420xA.jpg

I just saw these pictures too. The train link between Luzern-Interlaken and to Engelberg will be a long time in repairs. I understand the route to Grindelwald/Lauterbrunnen is nearly as devastating. There is an hourly bus from Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald for the time.

http://www.zentralbahn.ch/fotogalerie.php

Thanks for all the great info I've learned from this post. Does anyone know about Zurich. I fly into Zurich on Sept. 2nd and I'm staying in Zurich until the 5th, then taking the eurorail to Paris. Any thoughts?

Hi All,

The Swiss National Tourism Office has links for updates on rail & road connections: http://usa.myswitzerland.com/en/list...t=Breakingnews

Though the rail updates are in German, I just cut-and-pasted onto google's translator.

s

Here's another website to view the widespread devastation in Switzerland:
http://www.blick.ch/news/schweiz/hoc...r/artikel24644 Scroll down to "Hochwasser"

jill - I believe there's already bus service in place to Lauterbrunnen from Interlaken. (Interlaken Ost RR station being flooded)

texaseuro - Zurich has not seen the copious amounts of rain or damages from drainage as other areas. You should be ok.