At least 10 people were killed as Storm Ciaran battered western Europe with record winds of up to 200kph, causing travel mayhem with closed ports, and flight and rail disruptions.
Three people died in Tuscany, Italian authorities announced yesterday, reporting record rainfall and the declaration of a state of emergency.
Tuscany Governor Eugenio Giani said the three dead included an 85-year-old man who was found drowned in his house.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“What happened tonight in Tuscany has a name: climate change,” he wrote on X.
Florence Mayor Dario Nardella said the “situation is critical” in the city.
Trees felled by gale force winds caused most of the deaths in Europe.
In the Belgian city of Ghent, a five-year-old Ukrainian boy and a 64-year-old woman were killed by falling branches.
Falling trees had earlier killed a truck driver in his vehicle in northern France’s Aisne region, and French authorities also reported the death of a man who fell from his balcony in the port city of Le Havre.
A man in the Dutch town of Venray, a woman in central Madrid and a person in Germany also died.
About 1.2 million French homes lost electricity as the storm lashed the northwest coast. Almost 700,000 remained without power on Thursday evening, according to network manager Enedis.
French President Emmanuel Macron was due to visit the storm-battered region of Brittany yesterday, the Elysee Palace said.
The storm interrupted rail, air and maritime traffic in Belgium, where the port of Antwerp was closed and flights from Brussels were disrupted.
The wind gusts in the western Brittany region were “exceptional” and “many absolute records have been broken,” national weather service Meteo-France wrote on X.
The prefect for the local department said gusts as high as 207kph were recorded at Pointe du Raz on the tip of the northwest coast, while the port city of Brest saw winds hit 156kph.
In southern England, hundreds of schools were closed as large waves powered by winds of 135kph crashed along the coastline.
On the Channel Island of Jersey, residents had to be evacuated to hotels overnight as gusts of up to 164kph damaged homes, local media reported.
More than 200 flights were canceled at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, a major European hub.
Air, rail and ferry services saw cancelations and long delays across several nations. The effects of the storm were felt as far south as Spain and Portugal, with Spanish authorities warning of waves as high as 9m along the Atlantic coast.
In Spain, more than 80 flights were canceled at 11 airports.
There was disappointment for the hardy athletes of the annual Dutch “headwind cycle championships” race.
They only hold their race along the Oosterscheldekering storm surge barrier in the western Netherlands if the wind is above gale force seven on the Beaufort Scale (up to 61kph), but they finally met their match with Storm Ciaran and had to postpone it.
There were “many disappointed faces,” race organizer Robrecht Stoekenbroek told news agency ANP, vowing to go ahead when the storm passed.
The French weather service said storms would continue into yesterday, notably in the southwest of the nation and on the island of Corsica.
Rail services in western parts of the nation would remain disrupted yesterday, French Minister Delegate for Transport Clement Beaune said.
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