Fierce storms across Europe kill 51
Rain, hurricane-strength winds batter France, Germany, Spain
The Associated Press, Feb. 28, 2010
PARIS
- A violent late winter storm with fierce rain and hurricane-strength
winds ripped across western Europe on Sunday, battering France and four
other countries, leaving at least 51 people dead.
The
storm, named Xynthia, was the worst in France since 1999 when 90 people
died. Prime Minister Francois Fillon held an emergency Cabinet meeting
and afterward called the storm a “national catastrophe.”
Many
of the at least 45 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 Sunday and 59 others
were injured.
Three
people died in Spain, one person was killed in Germany and a child was
crushed to death in Portugal. The storm also hit Belgium, with one
death reported there. Although Britain was not hit, London’s Thames
Barrier — the capital’s flood defense — was closed Sunday morning as a
precaution.
Nearly
900,000 people in France were without electricity. Rivers overflowed
their banks in Brittany, while high tides and enormous waves swamped
Atlantic Ocean communities in the early morning hours.
Helicopters lifted people to safety from the roofs of their homes.
A
retired couple who had parked their camping car on the waterfront in
the town Moutier-en-Retz died when the vehicle was swallowed by rushing
waters and they could not make it to firm ground.
The
threat of avalanches was high in the Pyrenees Mountains and the
southern Alps due to wind and wet snow. Roofs were ripped off, chimneys
collapsed and the wind shattered the windows at a brewery in eastern
France.
In
Paris, winds knocked over motorcycles and spewed garbage around the
streets of the capital. Flights were delayed and at least 100 were
canceled at the two main Paris airports. A number of trains throughout
France were delayed because of flooded tracks.
Flights, trains canceled
Winds
reached about 130 mph on the summits of the Pyrenees and up to nearly
100 mph along the Atlantic Coast. The storm hit the Vendee and
Charente-Maritime regions in southwestern France hardest, flooding
coastal islands and tossing boats around in ports.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux planned to visit the worst hit regions Monday.
The
storm was moving eastward and parts of France along 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.
Fallen
trees also closed many stretches of train tracks in the states of
Rhineland-Palatinate, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia and Saarland.
High winds caused the cancellation of 119 flights from Frankfurt airport while scores of others were delayed or diverted.
Xynthia
hit Belgium in mid-afternoon. One man was killed by a falling tree in
his garden in Jodoigne, southern Belgium, broadcaster VRT reported.
High winds also brought down some electricity lines, leaving many
without power in the south of the country.
In
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. Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said the
storm had been intense in certain regions and had caused the deaths of
a woman in northwestern Ourense and of two people whose car was hit by
a falling tree in Arlanzon just north of Madrid.
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 118 mph had blown over the Canary Islands overnight
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 Saturday
by a falling tree in Paredes. The 10-year-old had been playing ball
near a church while waiting to go to a prayer meeting when a branch
crushed him, Pereira said.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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