Saturday storms hit the canton of Basel Country hard, with the cantonal building insurer, BGV, estimating damage costs between two and 2.5 million francs. 

On Sunday, the insurer saw 50 damage claims, with another 200 expected by the end of Monday.

Rainfall was sudden and hard, with national weather service MeteoSwiss registering nearly 70 millimeters in some spots in just three hours—that is seven percent of the yearly total.

“What was special about this was the intensity of the storm and the huge amount of water that came in an instant,” said Meinrad Stöcklin, with cantonal police, speaking with public television.

“And of course there were many spots damaged, in just a few minutes, everyone wanted the fire department to come as fast as possible, and that was not possible in all cases. It took a little while.”

The burst of rain flooded a number of streets, creek beds and basements.