Hallstatt Flooding?

Where did you see it? Hallstatt.at doesn't say anything about it. Austrian Rail doesn't show any interruption of service. OK. I have now found pictures showing some "flooding" in Hallstatt. Shows water running down streets into the lake. Not sure how extensive it is. It doesn't look like the lake is flooding, just water coming down from the cliff above town.

it is unusual for the lake to flood, but about three weeks ago, after a period of torrential rain, the level did rise close to promenade level. however, the latest disaster came after one night of torrential rain in the mountains above hallstatt. the stream from the waterfall is culverted through the village, and was unable to cope. this caused several of the streets to become rivers, tearing up the cobbles, bringing down tons of stone and shale, leaving 5 ft high banks of debris. hotels were flooded, as were numerous other properties. there are many photos and videos listed on google.
what a shame for this beautiful village.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to find out how badly damaged this town is as I was just booking reservations for a stay there in August. I asked the hotel but I am not sure how honest they will be.
Thanks

Yes, there are news reports of a June 20 Flash flood from a thunderstorm. As Lee said, there are photos of water running down the main street. So a bit of cleanup was required. This should not affect August visits at all, and as for the hotel being honest about the situation . . . This is a very small town in Austria. Why would they not be honest with you? In these days of travel forums and Tripadvisor reviews, dishonesty would be a very bad policy.

why would they not be truthful? If they were affected why would they say they weren't? And if they weren't why would they say they were?

The flooding in Hallstatt is a whole lot more than what it seems from here. Just checking the local news reports, the Mühlbach creek went over its banks on 6/19 in a very heavy downpour and the landslides left massive amounts of mud in the small town. Damage to city center streets and buildings is considerable. Although local authorities try to calm the tourist trade, the news is a lot more dire. I would suggest you search for Flooding in Hallstatt videos and news reports before committing to visiting the town at this time. Access to parts of town is very restricted, and while cleanup efforts are underway, visitors will be inconvenienced (not to mention the residents). See news at www.oon.at to confirm.

My family was toward the beginning of our 4-day stay when the flooding happened. Our apartment was a couple blocks away from the flood zone, overlooking the lake on Seestrasse. When the hail started, our kids were mostly worried about the swans. The damage to the town center affected our plans minimally; we were still able to do most of what we had wanted to do, with modifications. The damage that we saw was isolated to the center, so getting from one end of the old town to the other end was impossible on foot. But once the day trippers left for the day, the locals and overnighters were able to carefully walk across the rubble areas, to get to the other side of town. There was a big presence of workers going in each morning to work on the clean up, and much progress was made during our final days there. Except for the town square area, other businesses seemed to be operating normally. There was a steady stream of trucks and wheelbarrows on Seestrasse, though I would bet that amount of traffic has died down. We had hoped to hike up to the salt mine, but instead had to take the funicular. We were told that the hiking trail was badly damaged. The lake didn't look quite as pretty after the mudslide, with all the debris floating around.

Hi- Does anyone have more recent info on this? How's Hallstatt doing now?

Hi Jessica...I too am curious about that. I did find a small July 8 tidbit on tripadvisor.com but not certain how accurate the info is. The person mentioned that the town is operating as normal and you wouldn't have known a flash flood hit the city. The new tourist office is open in it's new location along with the new toilets. http://www.tripadvisor.in/ShowTopic-g190427-i9621-k6653571-Hallstatt_Flood_Update-Hallstatt_Upper_Austria.html