European Region (Commonwealth Union)_ Storm Ciaran stormed through the continent overnight and into Thursday (Brussels time), devastating homes, plunging vast numbers into darkness, and causing travel mayhem in several countries.
Around 127,000 homes were left without power yesterday as a tornado sparked by 104mph winds hit the United Kingdom during Storm Ciaran. More than 100 flights were cancelled in the UK on Thursday, with more disruption expected today.
Record-breaking winds in France leaving at least seven people dead
Winds of over 190km/h slammed the northern tip of France’s Atlantic coast, uprooting trees and blowing out windows. A truck driver whose vehicle was hit by a tree was killed in northern France’s inland Aisne region while A 70-year-old man in Normandy died in a fall from his balcony while he appeared to be closing his shutters amid a gust of wind.
Another person was badly injured at a university in Roubaix, and 15 other people were hurt around western and northern France according to authorities, while seven of the injured were emergency workers.
About 1.2 million French households were left without electricity on Thursday (Paris time), including about half of the homes in Brittany – the Atlantic peninsula hardest hit by Ciaran.
Fishing crews put their livelihoods on hold and stayed ashore while the wind reached up to around 160km/h on the Normandy coast and up to around 150km/h inland.
Local trains were cancelled across a swath of Western France, while all roads in the Finistere region of Brittany were closed.
The rain in Spain
In Spain the storm battered much of the country with heavy rains and gale force winds, while emergency services in Madrid said a woman died Thursday after a tree fell on her.
Three other individuals were slightly injured in the incident on a city centre street. Parks in the capital and other cities in Spain were closed, while several trains and flights were cancelled.
In the Netherlands ……
Dutch media reported that in different parts of the Netherlands, people had been hit by falling trees with one person killed in the southern town of Venray.
Dutch airline KLM scrapped all flights leaving and arriving from the early afternoon until the end of the day, citing the high sustained wind speeds and powerful gusts expected in the country.
Golf ball sized hailstones in the UK
Roofs were torn off the top of houses and trampolines were blown onto railway lines, causing mass train cancellations across the UK.
King’s Cross in central London was left in chaos on Thursday evening, with a signal failure causing all trains north to be either delayed or cancelled. Brits have been advised ‘not to travel until Sunday’ as the disruption arising from Storm Ciaran is expected to last all weekend.
Jersey saw some of the worst of the disruption, with windows smashed and roofs damaged by golf ball-sized hailstones amid gusts of 104mph while several people have been taken to hospital.
Many had to be rescued from cars in flooded roads in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, while a car was washed into the sea in Devon.
Police in Jersey said they took over 100 calls to 999, and dozens of people were taken to hotels as their homes were damaged.
The storm has caused major travel disruption across much of southern England. Elsewhere, flooding has caused problems on the M23 near Crawley near Gatwick, and Emergency services workers have had to rescue people from cars stuck in flooded roads across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.
One man was taken to hospital after his car went 150ft down an embankment, when he lost control after ploughing through a four-foot-deep puddle on the A303 in Hampshire. Sixteen firefighters took 45 minutes to rescue him from his vehicle.
In Devon, an unattended car was washed into the sea at Sidmouth.
The Met Office said that the mean sea level pressure reading for England and Wales in November was the lowest ever, breaking a record which had stood since 1916.
Simon Partridge, senior meteorologist at UK government weather agency the Met Office said the battering taken by the Channel Islands was “very much on par” with that seen in the so-called Great Storm of 1987, which caused utter devastation across the UK.
