Twin storms leave 150,000 northern European homes without power
Back-to-back systems Boelo and Austen killed one man, severed electricity to over 150,000 households, and halted travel across the UK, France, and Germany.
By Brian Foster ·
Storms Boelo and Austen struck northern Europe within 24 hours of each other, killing one man and cutting power to more than 150,000 homes across three countries. The twin systems disrupted flights, damaged infrastructure, and forced hospitals to limit services as they passed through the UK, France, and Germany.
In the United Kingdom, more than 82,000 households lost electricity on Sunday. A 60-year-old man died in southwestern Scotland when a tree fell on him, while two women were injured by another falling tree in the central region. Winds reached 135 km/h in Argyll and Bute, bringing down power lines and blocking roads and rail lines across Scotland and northern England. The Met Office warned of life-threatening dangers from flying debris and crashing waves, urging residents to stay indoors.
France experienced its first major storm of the autumn, with grid operator Enedis reporting that 288,000 homes were without power at the peak of Storm Austen on Saturday. By midday Sunday, 59,000 homes in Normandy and Brittany remained dark. In northern France, a marathon runner was lightly injured after a tree fell during a race.
Germany reported at least 10,000 homes without electricity in and around Freiburg-Breisgau on Sunday. The local main hospital restricted its services to emergency cases due to the blackout, which also interrupted mobile phone networks. German police said two people were seriously injured on Saturday when scaffolding blew off a market building in Nastatten.
The storms also affected the Netherlands and Belgium. In Brussels, falling trees injured four people on Saturday. North of the island of Schiermonnikoog in the Netherlands, three crew members on a freight ship were injured; two were airlifted to a mainland hospital. Hundreds of flights were cancelled or diverted across the region, including at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport.
In Brighton, on the southern coast of England, Storm Austen blew away an unused pier on Friday. Authorities issued flood risk warnings for parts of Scotland and England as the weather systems moved through the region.
Source: Al Jazeera
