Eleanor barrels through Europe
paris — Winter storm Eleanor swept into France, Belgium and the Netherlands on Wednesday after tearing through England and Northern Ireland, cutting power to tens of thousands of people and forcing airports and train services to halt operations.
A skiier was killed by a falling tree at Morillon in the French Alps while 15 others have been injured by the storm across the country, four of them seriously, civil defence spokesman Michael Bernier said.
Another person was hurt by a falling tree in the southern Dutch village of Heesch.
Heavy winds led the airports in Strasbourg and Basel-Mulhouse on France’s border with Germany and Switzerland to close before they were reopened shortly after midday.
At Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport, 60 per cent of departures were delayed on Wednesday morning, as were a third of arrivals, while a handful of flights had to be rerouted before the winds eased back a bit.
The winds were also wreaking havoc with train services in several French regions.
About 200,000 homes across northern France were without electricity, while “particularly intense” flooding was expected on the Atlantic coasts.
The Eiffel Tower, which attracts six million visitors a year, was closed until at least Wednesday afternoon, while worries about falling tree branches prompted Paris officials to close all city parks for the day.
Eleanor barrelled into continental Europe after whipping across England, Northern Ireland and Ireland, with the Thames Barrier, one of the largest movable flood barriers in the world, closed as a precautionary measure to protect London from swelling tides.
“We have seen some heavy showers push through across the south of the UK along with hail, loud thunder and lightning, which has woken people up,” said meteorologist Becky Mitchell. Gusts of 160kmph were recorded at Great Dun Fell in Westmorland, northwest England, while overturned vehicles and trees caused closures of major motorways. —