‘Ciara’ leaves trail of destruction
O Heavy rain, strong winds batter Europe, causing travel chaos
LONDON: Storm Ciara caused travel chaos yesterday, severely disrupting commutes and grounding hundreds of flights as swathes of Europe were left without power by torrential rain and winds of up to 180km/h that also caused flash flooding and cancellation of sporting fixtures.
In one of the most violent storms for years, one man died and another was reported missing in southern Sweden when their boat capsized, while three people were seriously injured in Germany by falling trees and branches.
Parts of northern France were put on orange alert and 130,000 homes had electricity cut off.
The Netherlands closed one of its big storm surge barriers as the storm approached on Sunday night. Police said it caused morning traffic jams over 600km of roads yesterday.
About 220 flights were cancelled at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, Europe’s third-busiest.
About 240 never took off on Sunday.
Another man was injured by a tree in the Czech Republic, where winds reached up to 180km/h on the country’s highest mountain, Snezka. The storm left 100,000 without power.
Tiny Luxembourg cancelled school classes and morning rush hour traffic ground to a halt in Brussels due to street closures and flooding.
Britain began a clean-up after bearing the brunt of one of the most of violent and destructive storms in years.
“While Storm
Ciara
is clearing away, that doesn’t mean we’re entering a quieter period of weather,” Met Office meteorologist Alex Burkill warned.
“Blizzards aren’t out of the question”.
Transport was disrupted across the country with planes and trains cancelled or delayed.
The highest wind speed recorded was 150km/hour in the northwest Welsh village of Aberdaron.
More than 15cm of rain fell over 24 hours at Sleddale Reservoir in northwest England’s Lake District national park.
More than 170 flood warnings remained in place yesterday.
The West Yorkshire towns of Hebden Bridge and neighbouring
Mytholmroyd were among the worst hit by the storm.
Much of the initial damage and disruption in Europe was along the coasts.
Channel ferry services between the southern English port of Dover and Calais in northern France resumed yesterday morning after being halted Sunday.
The whole Belgian offshore wind farm was shut down as powerful gusts caused the turbines to stop automatically for safety reasons.
The storm was so violent that “we are forced to completely stop mainline train traffic in Germany this Sunday evening,” Deutsche Bahn spokesman Achim Stauss told AFP.