Storms spark travel mayhem and power cuts in northern Europe

PARIS – Gale-force winds and storms barrelled through northern Europe on Jan 9, claiming more lives, causing travel mayhem, shutting schools and cutting power to hundreds of thousands in freezing temperatures.

Some 50 flights were cancelled at London’s Heathrow Airport, affecting thousands of passengers. Air travel was disrupted across Europe from the Czech Republic to Moscow, where over 300 flights were cancelled at four airports serving the Russian capital.

Forecasters from Britain to Germany urged people to stay indoors as they issued weather warnings, including the rare, highest-level red wind alert for the British Isles of Scilly and Cornwall in south-western England.

Nearly 50,000 homes in England and Wales were still without power on the afternoon of Jan 9, according to the National Grid energy provider.

Storm Goretti brought strong winds and heavy snow to parts of Britain overnight. It closed more than 250 schools across Scotland, which has struggled through bad weather for much of the first week back after the Christmas break.

In France, Goretti cut power to some 320,000 homes, most of them in the northern Normandy region, the Enedis power provider said. Overnight, gusts of up to 216kmh were registered in France’s north-western Manche region, the authorities said.

The winds felled trees, with at least one crashing on homes in France’s Seine-Maritime region, without causing injuries, the authorities said.

Gusts of up to 160kmh lashed England and Wales, with the Met Office forecasting agency warning of “very large waves” bringing “dangerous conditions to coastal areas”.

It also issued an amber snow warning in Wales, central England and parts of northern England, predicting snow of up to 30cm in some areas.

‘Hurricane-force’ winds

More than 13 people have died in weather-related accidents this past week across Europe. The latest were in Bavaria, southern Germany, where a road accident linked to the storms killed two people on Jan 9, said police.

Also in Bavaria, a 52-year-old man died on Jan 8 after veering off the road and crashing into a tree while driving round a bend, local police said.

Turkish media reported five deaths: two people were killed in separate accidents involving dislodged roof tiles, a Syrian man died when a wall fell on him, a construction worker was swept into the Aegean Sea, and a pensioner fell off a roof.

Schools remained shut in parts of northern France, and weather alerts have been issued in 30 other regions of the country.

Giant waves crashed over harbour walls across France’s far north-west overnight and, as the storm moved east, it brought flooding and forced the closure of roads and ports, including Dieppe.

Northern Germany faced severe disruption from heavy snow and high winds brought by Storm Elli, with schools ordered closed in the cities of Hamburg and Bremen and long-distance rail services cancelled.

Flights were cancelled or postponed at Hamburg Airport, while several main roads were paralysed, including some hundreds of kilometres to the south in the Frankfurt region.

The German weather service warned of “hurricane-force” winds in areas on the North Sea and in the south-west, and up to 15cm of snow in parts of the country on Jan 9.

Two Bundesliga football matches, between FC Saint Pauli and RB Leipzig and Werder Bremen and TSG Hoffenheim, scheduled for Jan 10, were cancelled due to the current weather conditions, the German Football League announced.

Carmaker Volkswagen shut its factory in Emden in north-eastern Germany, where about 8,000 people work. The country’s rail operator Deutsche Bahn said traffic would resume gradually through Jan 10.

Flood waters receding

Some 600 schools are closed in Moldova until Jan 12 and around 1,000 homes were without electricity in Romania.

But flood waters were receding in parts of the Balkans on Jan 9 after heavy snowfall and torrential downpours earlier in the week triggered hundreds of evacuations across several countries and killed at least two people.

In Albania, one of the hardest hit in the region, Prime Minister Edi Rama said the authorities were beginning to count the cost of flooding after hundreds of homes were inundated, mainly in the south.

Warnings of icy conditions and snowfall remained in effect across most of the region, including Serbia, where parts of the west have been without power for days after a snowstorm knocked out power lines. AFP