Ciara lashes Europe, disrupts travel

LONDON: Hundreds of flights and train services were cancelled across northwest Europe on Monday as Storm Ciara swept in packing powerful winds after lashing Britain and Ireland, where tens of thousands of homes were left without power.

Swathes of northern France were put on orange alert and 130,000 homes had electricity cut off amid fears of coastal storm surges.

Ciara was heading south through France yesterday with the electricity network company Enedis reporting outages from Brittany in the west to the centre and east.

Trees and electricity poles were blown over and roofs ripped off homes across 31 departments, fire and rescue services said.

Britain, which bore the brunt of the storm Sunday with widespread flooding across the north, remained on alert with the Meteorological Office warning of strong winds, heavy rain and snow.

“While Storm Ciara is clearing away, that doesn’t mean we’re entering a quieter period of weather,” Met Office meteorologist Alex Burkill said. “It’s going to stay very unsettled,” he said, warning “blizzards aren’t out of the question”.

Transport was disrupted across the country with planes, trains and ferries cancelled or delayed after Ciara brought torrential rains and hurricane-force winds. — AFP