Hundreds of canceled flights, trains and ferries across North West Europe. Nearly 48 hours after Dudley, Storm Eunice swept across the mainland. It caused at least 9 deaths.
Formed in Ireland, the storm passed Friday over part of the United Kingdom then northern France, Benelux before continuing its route towards Denmark and Germany, of which a large northern third was placed on red alert until Saturday morning.
On British television, the images are impressive: uprooted trees, torn roofs and on the coasts waves several meters high. The wind blew for example at nearly 200 km / h on the Isle of Wight, a record.
In London, a deserted capital on Friday, a woman was killed by a falling tree. A man died in his car in Liverpool. The red alert had been issued by the weather services in the south of England and Wales. Millions of Britons have been asked to stay at home.
Eight seriously injured in France
Storm Eunice then headed towards northern Europe and claimed four lives in the Netherlands and three others in Ireland, Germany and Belgium. In France, at least 8 people were seriously injured in road accidents related to wind or falling materials. Waves sometimes exceeding nine meters were recorded in Brittany (west) as well as gusts of wind locally reaching 176 km / h at Cape Gris-Nez (north).
Around 75,000 homes remained without electricity on Saturday at 8 a.m. in the Nord and Pas-de-Calais after the passage of the storm, Enedis announced in a press release this Saturday morning.
Very disrupted transport
In the Netherlands, the damage to the installations of the international railway line Thalys (which connects Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and Cologne), prohibited all traffic this Saturday morning. “The entire Dutch network” was affected, a Thalys spokesperson told AFP. Only the Paris-Brussels trains were operating, but the full service should however be restored at the start of the afternoon, he said.
Traffic was severely disrupted on Friday across the north of the continent. Over 400 flights have been canceled at UK airports, over 200 planes grounded from Amsterdam. Cross-Channel ferry traffic has been interrupted. In Denmark and Belgium the trains will run slowly. SNCF in France announces disruptions on its regional lines.
Strong gusts still expected this Saturday on the German coasts where the storm is following its course.
(and with AFP)
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