Swiss Rowing Suffers in Floods

Still flooded at Sarnen

Severe flooding in parts of Switzerland has left the Swiss Rowing Federation in ruins and potentially all of their boats destroyed. Speaking from the World Rowing Championships in Gifu, Japan, Swiss Rowing’s technical director Lukas Rieder said that the home of the national training centre and federation headquarters was hit so quickly that they barely had time to clear anything out.

?Water filled the basement and got up to the first floor. It destroyed our archives, the training facilities (ergs and weights) and we think most of the boats to be destroyed,? said Rieder.

Presently the doors to the boathouse cannot be opened but from past flooding experience it is likely that the damage is extensive.

?It is difficult to tell the cost of damage,? said Rieder. ?I expect it will be about 150,000 CHF.?

No athletes were at the Sarnen training centre (about 20 km south of Lucerne) as they are either at the World Rowing Championships or on end of season holiday, but Rieder said that school camps coming to the facility over the next few weeks will have to be cancelled.

The centre was hit by flooding last year in May but at that stage there was enough warning to move out equipment and build sand walls around the main building. This time the warning came at 4:00 a.m. and there was only time to take out the most important files. 

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