Heavy storm rushes through Europe

[Tobian]

27 die in wild Europe storms

Correspondents in London
January 19, 2007 10:23am
Article from: Agence France-Presse

HURRICANE-force winds have battered parts of Europe, killing at least 27 people and triggering a dramatic air-sea rescue from a sinking cargo ship in the English Channel.

The storms brought torrential rains and winds gusting at close to 170km/h to areas of southern Britain, northern France, the Netherlands, Germany and the Czech Republic.

Falling trees and pylons killed seven motorists, including the managing director of central England's Birmingham airport, killed when a branch fell on his car as he was driving to work.

In all, 10 people were killed in storm-related accidents in England, seven in Germany, five in the Netherlands, three in the Czech Republic and two in France. Many of the deaths were due to traffic accidents and falling debris.

Meteorologists at London's Met Office said the winds reached "severe gale force" as they crossed Britain and were the highest recorded since January 1990. But they warned that the system would intensify as it headed east across the continent. Winds of almost 170km/h were recorded later in the day in Germany.

"Denmark, Netherlands and Germany were expected to be more severely affected by the storm as it tracked across them through this evening," the office said on its website.

In Munich, an 18-month-old baby was crushed to death by a door that was torn off its hinges, while a 73-year-old man was killed when a barn door fell on him in Bavaria.

In the southern Dutch town of Riel an 11-year-old boy died after he was hit by a car, whose driver said the child was blown into the car by a sudden gust of wind.

A pensioner was crushed when a wall collapsed on her near Stockport in northwest England, while a man was killed after being blown into a metal shutter at an industrial estate in Manchester.

In the Czech Republic a fireman was killed by a falling tree, while two youths were crushed when a tree fell on their car on the outskirts of the capital Prague.

The high winds caused chaos across the country, cutting powerlines and disrupting transport with forecasters warning of worse in store during the night.

In the English Channel, 26 crew who abandoned their sinking freighter were airlifted to safety in a daring joint French-British operation launched in hazardous conditions.

The French coastguard said all the men who had been huddling in a lifeboat had been winched aboard British Sea King helicopters and were taken to the navy base at Culdrose in southwestern England. They had been forced to leave their London-registered cargo ship, the MS Napoli, after it suffered a 1.5m gash just above the waterline.

A spokesman for the British Coastguard said the freighter was listing badly off the Cornish coastline. "We don't know yet whether it will go down," he said.
French coastguard officials said the ship was carrying hundreds of tonnes of "dangerous" cargo including explosives and unspecified toxins, and a 5km slick of oil pollution had been detected behind the vessel.

The storms also forced the suspension of cross-Channel ferry services between the English port of Dover and France and caused chaos to road and rail transport in England.

German meteorologists said the storm was shaping up to be the worst in five years and authorities warned people to go outside only in exceptional circumstances. The winds led to numerous flight cancellations at Frankfurt airport.

The head of the German rescue services, Albrecht Broemme, said tens of thousands of emergency workers were on standby.
"If this hits all of Germany, things could become pretty bad," he said.

In Paris all public parks, gardens and cemeteries were closed as a precaution until the end of the violent weather. The Eurostar train service between Paris, Brussels and London was briefly suspended before services resumed later in the day.

The Dutch transport ministry took the unprecedented step of issuing a warning asking all motorists to avoid getting on the road if possible. The Red Cross was setting up temporary shelters for 5000 commuters stranded when the Netherlands shut down all rail traffic.

In other transport chaos, British Airways cancelled 130 domestic flights, 100 flights were cancelled at Swiss airports, Deutsche Bahn railway company halted services across Germany, and Amsterdam train station was closed after glass plates were blown off the roof.

Link: http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,21084081-663,00.html

As some of you already know I’m from the Netherlands, one of the country’s where the storm caused massive damage. I never expected this storm to be so heavy and knock out all (public) transportation within our country, as I was leaving for work yesterday morning.

After a weather alarm was given me and my fellow colleagues where advised to go home. On the way with the bus to Utrecht Central Station debris was flying everywhere. After my arrival at the train station it soon became clear nobody was going anywhere. All trains were cancelled, busses with destinations out of the city and taxicabs didn’t dare because of the major traffic jams and crazy weather conditions.

So I have wondered around the Station of Utrecht and in organized emergency accommodations nearby until the next morning at around 6 am when the first trains where leaving again. It has been a horrible long day for a lot of people. I for one am taking a free day to try and get some rest.

After coming home and reading things up on the news I can only feel fortunate nothing terrible happened to me. Poor people who lost there lives also in the rest of Europe. If anyone has anything to share (maybe own experiences like myself) in addition to these heavy storms last night, please do so here.

 

[banjo7]

This wind made my shed fly 30 feet into next doors garden!

 

[Steroyd]

WOW i thought it was just the UK.

Climate change is biting us hard.

 

[Grym]

The end is near!

Just kidding. The only change I have noticed here is that winter is warmer than usual. We didn't even have snow on christmas eve which is really unusual.

 

[Steroyd]

I haven't had snow on Christmas for years, and even when it did snow it was usually for just a whole day before it melted the next.

Oh 1992 how i miss you where the snow was thick and i could actually make a snowball.

 

[Xaor]

[QUOTE="Steroyd, post: 0]I haven't had snow on Christmas for years, and even when it did snow it was usually for just a whole day before it melted the next.

Oh 1992 how i miss you where the snow was thick and i could actually make a snowball. [/QUOTE]

Its snowed every year down here in the SW since I moved here in 2000 So far no snow this year, but I reckon next week could be it...

 

[ninjaboy]

Not related to Europe, but I heard somewhere that this was the warmest winter in American history...

 

[wotter]

Lots of branches of trees that came down, it's over now. It's still warm outside, I'm still waiting for the first snow to fall.

 

[Xepher]

» I had the luxury of walking half a kilometer to my school.

 

[Svetlana]

My fence has been destroyed and I have to watch my dogs when I let them outside because they might run away. On the route where I walk my dogs, trees about four times taller than my house lay strewn across the fields like discarded matchsticks.

The roof of my neighbour's dilapidated shed worried me as the wind was blowing in the direction of my patio windows.

Don't you just love extreme weather?

 

[Xaor]

[QUOTE="ninjaboy, post: 0]Not related to Europe, but I heard somewhere that this was the warmest winter in American history...[/QUOTE]

Actually, in a lot of places, isn't it one of the coldest?

 

[Svetlana]

[QUOTE="Xaor, post: 0]Actually, in a lot of places, isn't it one of the coldest?[/quote]


This winter has been exceptionally warm. I don't think I've ever witnessed a winter as warm as this in my region of England.

Flowers that usually bloom in late spring/early summer have already sprouted up in my front garden.

For several nights this month we've had temperates of just under fifteen degrees celcius, which is the sort of temperatures we'd expect to get on an early spring's afternoon.

This weekend (and all of next week), snow and cold conditions have been forecasted.

 

[Naboomagnoli]

It was lovely in Brighton, being woken up by loud howling wind and feeling my bed moving slightly from side to side (my room's in a loft conversion so the floorboards have a bit more flexibility to them than in other rooms). 80MPH winds, somebody told me.

 

[Larryg]

Here in America we are experiencing some of the worse winter/ice storms ever recorded. The theory behind all this extrememe weather conditions around the world is due to Global Warming - excessive use of gasonline powered vehicles which produces carbon dioxides which traps the heat in our atmosphere.

 

[keshin]

It woke me up yesterday at 6am and I couldn't get back to sleep. When I looked out of the window the trees where horizontal.

Later in the day I went into town in Liverpool and drove past tipped over lorries. The size of the waves where really scary in the Albert Dock. I watched one man get out of his car and the door was forced out of his hand and smashed shut denting the casing.

Really shocking stuff. I've never seen wind this strong before.

 

[Keesie]

I would say: The Day After Tommorow comes to life...

I mean, this storm was so bad yesterday. Here in Holland you were advised to stay at home, and not go on the streets... :S But everything turned back to normal again now...let's hope this storm won't continue

 

[Voice Of A Riot]

Just opposite my house a parked car had been crushed by a falling tree. Luckily no one was inside at the time, but it's totalled. Insurance claims are certainly going to be on the rise this time of year.

 

[proof]

At school, me and my mates (we are not exactly twigs) were getting blown over, it was mad. We had to like goup together so then if he started moving, we grabbed each other.
This is South Manchester BTW.

 

[Varsh]

It was pretty nasty in Weston, the wave height was starting to flood the town, on top of that there were a few cars upside down (and some boats), also quite the number of houses had missing tiles. I'm rather lucky though as my house is built into the hill so we don't get the effect of wind.

 

[proof]

I forgot to mention. We have a massive atroturf at our school, and we all got kicked off it because the 60 foot flood lights were moving so much that they looked like they were going to come down.
I thought ye right, the foundations are probably another 20ft!

 

[Naboomagnoli]

[QUOTE="Varsh, post: 0]It was pretty nasty in Weston, the wave height was starting to flood the town, on top of that there were a few cars upside down (and some boats), also quite the number of houses had missing tiles. I'm rather lucky though as my house is built into the hill so we don't get the effect of wind.[/QUOTE]

That's a very formal way of describing a cave

I had no idea that people were killed because of this.

Hurricane of '87

So the winds that hit Germany were on par with what hit the Channel Islands, and stronger than those which hit London in 1987.

 

[splitman]

27 dead,winds gusting over 160km/h.This is most unusual for winter Europe.This looks like hurricanes that devastate gulf of Mexico every year.But this year gulf was almost without hurricanes.Does that have anything to do with this storm?


Here in Croatia we have warmest winter ever.In my hometown temperatures this winter never go down below 5°C(41°F).We didnt have storms but we have unusually dry wither.


I dont know is this natural or our fault ,but weather is changing rapidly and its going to be worse .It doesnt matter whose fault is,we must change our ways,we have to invest in new technologies and cut down carbon dioxides emissions before is to late.

 

[Xaor]

[QUOTE="splitman, post: 0]

I dont know is this natural or our fault ,but weather is changing rapidly and its going to be worse .It doesnt matter whose fault is,we must change our ways,we have to invest in new technologies and cut down carbon dioxides emissions before is to late.[/QUOTE]

Technically, if it was 'Natural' the most logical thing to do would be to protect ourselves against winds like this.

It also, could be coincidential. I guess we'll have to wait til next year to find out.

The underlying factor is the plans to cut down on carbon emissions by 30% by 2035 (roughly) is simply not enough.


Probably the EASIEST way to stop the problems is to stop people flying.

1 Holiday a year maximum. Use computer technology for conferencing.



To survive against Global Warming, (Whether our cause or not), we have to act fast, and we'll have to wreck our economy.

Or we can pray.

 

[kingsam]

**** was nuts!
I stayed in for fear of being cold.

 

[garyfitz]

Did anyone see that plane taking off on the BBC news? How it didnt fall out of the sky I'll never know.

 

[Scheller]

Sounds crazy... here we were having ice storms and 30 died (I think) in Missouri from accidents and whatnot. We just started getting snow a few minutes ago here in Lubbock. We're supposed to get 14 inches.

 

[Tobian]

[QUOTE="Steroyd, post: 0]I haven't had snow on Christmas for years, and even when it did snow it was usually for just a whole day before it melted the next.

Oh 1992 how i miss you where the snow was thick and i could actually make a snowball. [/quote]

Yeah, I miss skating on real nature ice and enjoying snowfights instead there's been much rain and a pretty warm winter here as well.

[QUOTE="Keesie, post: 0]I would say: The Day After Tommorow comes to life...

I mean, this storm was so bad yesterday. Here in Holland you were advised to stay at home, and not go on the streets... :S But everything turned back to normal again now...let's hope this storm won't continue[/quote]

I wish I did not go to work that day but before the weather alarm was set it was already to late for most people.

Well, it seems the storm is officially over now.

 

[[velocity]]

[QUOTE="Grym, post: 0]The end is near!

Just kidding. The only change I have noticed here is that winter is warmer than usual. We didn't even have snow on christmas eve which is really unusual.[/quote]


Samma här i Finland.
There has'nt been almost any snow, which is frustrating, as you're used to be skiing now.:? But oh no, only warm weathers and no snow!

 

[Geostrophic]

Just a note...

I'm a meteorologist...but I'm a yank...so you might not trust me

...but those storms were attributed primarily to El Nino...not global warming.

 

[Redman_DK]

Well last week there was quite a big storm in Denmark, but I've seen worse, so I didn't really care.

And we have finally gotten snow in Denmark, about damn time, all that rain was starting to get irritating.