The eunice stormwhich hit northwestern Europe, left 14 dead, as well as significant material damage and massive power outages.
The storm formed in Ireland and passed through parts of the United Kingdom on Friday, then northern France and the Benelux countries (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg) before continuing on to Denmark and Germany, where the northern third of the country was placed on red alert until Saturday.
In Germany, “more than a thousand kilometers of railways were damaged,” according to a spokesman for the Deutsche Bahn railway company, mainly due to falling trees that partially paralyzed traffic in the north of the country.
However, the peak of the storm has already passed and the alert (level three on a scale of four) issued by the German weather service has been lifted.
Hundreds of flights, trains and ferries have been canceled across northwestern Europe because of Eunice’s winds, less than 48 hours after Storm Dudley killed at least six people in Poland and Germany.
So far, 14 deaths due to Eunice have been reported:
- 4 in the Netherlands
- 3 in England
- 2 in Poland
- 2 in Germany
- 2 in Belgium
- 1 in Ireland
According to local media citing the prosecutor, a man struck by a blown-up solar panel in Ghent died of his injuries on Saturday.
Many of these deaths were caused by trees falling on vehicles.
In the Netherlands, dozens of houses were evacuated in the capital, The Hague, fearing a church tower might collapse.
The rail network in the Netherlands was disrupted and services on the Amsterdam-Brussels train were halted, although a spokesman said they would resume in the afternoon.
According to the British weather agency, clean-up operations could be disrupted by a new, albeit weaker, gale expected in parts of the UK, as well as some snowfall.
At least 226,000 homes were still without power Saturday in the country, where insurers estimate the damage at more than 300 million pounds (360 million euros, 400 million dollars).
In Poland, there were 194,000 people without electricity, according to local authorities, and several rail connections are suspended.
unprecedented gusts
In England, an unprecedented gust of 196 km/h was recorded on the Isle of Wight.
The British weather service issued a red alert — the highest level — for south Wales and southern England, including London. It is the first time the British capital has reached this alert level since the system was introduced in 2011.
In northern France, some 30 people were injured in traffic accidents related to wind, falls or falling materials.
Around 37,000 homes were without power on Saturday and some regional rail links were disrupted.
Strong gusts of wind coupled with high tides raise fears of flooding, especially since heavy rains were expected on Saturday.
Ferry traffic across the English Channel was disrupted, hundreds of flights were canceled on Friday, and road and rail transport was also affected in several countries.
In France, waves of more than nine meters were recorded in Brittany (west), as well as wind gusts of up to 176 km/h at Cape Gris-Nez (north).
Although it is known that climate change generally increases and multiplies extreme events, it is not so clear in the case of winds and storms (excluding cyclones), the number of which varies greatly from year to year.
The latest report from the UN climate experts (IPCC), released in August, estimates, with a very low degree of certainty, that the number of storms in the Northern Hemisphere may have increased since the 1980s.
