Dozens die as Europe weathers bad storm
Source: Agencies |
March 1, 2010, Monday
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A VIOLENT late winter storm with fierce rain and hurricane-strength winds battered France, Spain and Portugal yesterday, leaving at least 27 people dead.
Many of the 22 victims in France drowned, while others died when hit by parts of buildings or trees and branches that were ripped off by the wind. At least a dozen people were missing and hundreds of others were injured.
The storm, named Xynthia, was the worst in France since 1999 when 90 people died.
Nearly 900,000 people were without electricity. Rivers overflowed their banks in Brittany, and the threat of avalanches was high in the Pyrenees Mountains and the southern Alps due to wind and wet snow.
In Paris, winds knocked over motorcycles and spewed garbage around the streets of the capital. Flights were delayed and some were canceled at the two main Paris airports. Several trains in western France were delayed because of flooded rail tracks.
Wind gusts reached about 200 kilometers an hour on the summits of the Pyrenees and up to nearly 160 kph along the Atlantic Coast.
The storm hit hardest in the Vendee and Charente-Maritime regions in southwestern France.
The storm was moving eastward and parts of France near the border with Germany and Belgium were on alert for heavy rain and high winds.
Officials say scores of flights and trains have been canceled or delayed in southwestern Germany.
One person was killed in the Black Forest area when winds brought a tree down onto his car in the Sunday afternoon storm.
In neighboring Spain, the Interior Minister said three people were killed by hurricane-strength winds and heavy rainfall that lashed the country's northern regions over the weekend.
The national weather agency had warned that a violent cyclone depression had formed over the Atlantic Ocean and was to cross areas bordering the Bay of Biscay.
Winds gusting up to 190 kph had blown over the Canary Islands overnight on Friday causing a crane to collapse on a building, lampposts to fall onto parked cars and forcing flight cancellations.
Portugal's home affairs minister Rui Pereira said a child had been killed on Saturday by a falling tree in Paredes.
The 10-year-old had been playing ball while waiting to go to a prayer meeting when a branch crushed him.
Many of the 22 victims in France drowned, while others died when hit by parts of buildings or trees and branches that were ripped off by the wind. At least a dozen people were missing and hundreds of others were injured.
The storm, named Xynthia, was the worst in France since 1999 when 90 people died.
Nearly 900,000 people were without electricity. Rivers overflowed their banks in Brittany, and the threat of avalanches was high in the Pyrenees Mountains and the southern Alps due to wind and wet snow.
In Paris, winds knocked over motorcycles and spewed garbage around the streets of the capital. Flights were delayed and some were canceled at the two main Paris airports. Several trains in western France were delayed because of flooded rail tracks.
Wind gusts reached about 200 kilometers an hour on the summits of the Pyrenees and up to nearly 160 kph along the Atlantic Coast.
The storm hit hardest in the Vendee and Charente-Maritime regions in southwestern France.
The storm was moving eastward and parts of France near the border with Germany and Belgium were on alert for heavy rain and high winds.
Officials say scores of flights and trains have been canceled or delayed in southwestern Germany.
One person was killed in the Black Forest area when winds brought a tree down onto his car in the Sunday afternoon storm.
In neighboring Spain, the Interior Minister said three people were killed by hurricane-strength winds and heavy rainfall that lashed the country's northern regions over the weekend.
The national weather agency had warned that a violent cyclone depression had formed over the Atlantic Ocean and was to cross areas bordering the Bay of Biscay.
Winds gusting up to 190 kph had blown over the Canary Islands overnight on Friday causing a crane to collapse on a building, lampposts to fall onto parked cars and forcing flight cancellations.
Portugal's home affairs minister Rui Pereira said a child had been killed on Saturday by a falling tree in Paredes.
The 10-year-old had been playing ball while waiting to go to a prayer meeting when a branch crushed him.
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