Zürcher Nachrichten - 16 dead as Storm Eunice, hits power, transport in W.Europe

EUR -
AED 4.105035
AFN 78.234118
ALL 98.295246
AMD 432.455447
ANG 2.000199
AOA 1024.866746
ARS 1271.863081
AUD 1.745258
AWG 2.011734
AZN 1.90029
BAM 1.952996
BBD 2.258258
BDT 135.884875
BGN 1.955215
BHD 0.421194
BIF 3280.244439
BMD 1.11763
BND 1.453678
BOB 7.728007
BRL 6.329925
BSD 1.118444
BTN 95.567045
BWP 15.155915
BYN 3.660308
BYR 21905.550598
BZD 2.246654
CAD 1.561139
CDF 3207.598326
CHF 0.935317
CLF 0.02734
CLP 1049.15353
CNY 8.054736
CNH 8.053157
COP 4693.141276
CRC 567.410608
CUC 1.11763
CUP 29.617199
CVE 110.729235
CZK 24.934153
DJF 198.625255
DKK 7.460584
DOP 65.884212
DZD 149.110905
EGP 56.049262
ERN 16.764452
ETB 148.419703
FJD 2.56077
FKP 0.840311
GBP 0.840659
GEL 3.062246
GGP 0.840311
GHS 13.857101
GIP 0.840311
GMD 80.469205
GNF 9673.656795
GTQ 8.592661
GYD 233.993995
HKD 8.723835
HNL 29.002697
HRK 7.536631
HTG 146.186623
HUF 402.731283
IDR 18452.352896
ILS 3.973187
IMP 0.840311
INR 95.522003
IQD 1464.095474
IRR 47052.228507
ISK 144.744697
JEP 0.840311
JMD 178.283992
JOD 0.792739
JPY 162.845973
KES 144.737315
KGS 97.73651
KHR 4490.637768
KMF 492.317838
KPW 1005.823473
KRW 1560.12204
KWD 0.343581
KYD 0.932074
KZT 571.155398
LAK 24163.163567
LBP 100139.659982
LKR 333.835562
LRD 223.078562
LSL 20.150994
LTL 3.300071
LVL 0.676044
LYD 6.170443
MAD 10.383554
MDL 19.483284
MGA 5068.452319
MKD 61.538773
MMK 2346.518225
MNT 3995.68892
MOP 8.995383
MRU 44.28072
MUR 51.276845
MVR 17.278262
MWK 1940.205737
MXN 21.765327
MYR 4.786257
MZN 71.412533
NAD 20.285076
NGN 1790.823393
NIO 41.084255
NOK 11.653191
NPR 152.907273
NZD 1.903791
OMR 0.430246
PAB 1.118409
PEN 4.117907
PGK 4.544293
PHP 62.321845
PKR 314.712294
PLN 4.249567
PYG 8929.178095
QAR 4.069275
RON 5.106678
RSD 117.07712
RUB 89.409711
RWF 1588.152418
SAR 4.192069
SBD 9.33709
SCR 16.205752
SDG 671.136259
SEK 10.883873
SGD 1.449728
SHP 0.878282
SLE 25.333151
SLL 23436.145304
SOS 639.210718
SRD 40.616358
STD 23132.687258
SVC 9.786429
SYP 14530.709638
SZL 20.284551
THB 37.147226
TJS 11.58127
TMT 3.917294
TND 3.372451
TOP 2.617607
TRY 43.263468
TTD 7.595365
TWD 33.717773
TZS 3009.421455
UAH 46.385375
UGX 4082.13823
USD 1.11763
UYU 46.595176
UZS 14501.25103
VES 105.099742
VND 28999.707865
VUV 134.173933
WST 3.090688
XAF 655.045688
XAG 0.034392
XAU 0.000347
XCD 3.020451
XDR 0.821053
XOF 644.872806
XPF 119.331742
YER 272.831412
ZAR 20.131989
ZMK 10060.015152
ZMW 29.868511
ZWL 359.876447
  • RBGPF

    0.8100

    63.81

    +1.27%

  • CMSC

    0.1320

    22.097

    +0.6%

  • SCS

    -0.1050

    10.435

    -1.01%

  • JRI

    0.0385

    12.675

    +0.3%

  • RELX

    0.9800

    54.04

    +1.81%

  • RIO

    0.6000

    62.63

    +0.96%

  • NGG

    2.4600

    69.89

    +3.52%

  • RYCEF

    0.2600

    10.79

    +2.41%

  • CMSD

    0.1000

    22.36

    +0.45%

  • BCE

    0.4000

    21.66

    +1.85%

  • BCC

    0.2450

    90.985

    +0.27%

  • BTI

    0.7500

    41.3

    +1.82%

  • AZN

    1.5950

    67.825

    +2.35%

  • BP

    -0.2750

    30.085

    -0.91%

  • VOD

    0.2350

    9.275

    +2.53%

  • GSK

    1.2400

    37.46

    +3.31%

16 dead as Storm Eunice, hits power, transport in W.Europe
16 dead as Storm Eunice, hits power, transport in W.Europe

16 dead as Storm Eunice, hits power, transport in W.Europe

Emergency crews Saturday battled to restore power to more than one million homes and businesses a day after Storm Eunice carved a deadly trail across northwest Europe and left transport networks in disarray.

Text size:

At least 16 people were killed by falling trees and flying debris caused by the fierce winds in Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Poland, emergency services said.

Train operators in Britain urged people not to travel, after most of the network was shut down when Eunice brought the strongest wind gust ever recorded in England -- 122 miles (196 kilometres) per hour.

In Brentwood, east of London, a 400-year-old tree crashed into a house where Sven Good was working from home, as millions of other Britons heeded government advice to stay indoors.

"I could feel the whole roof going above me. It was absolutely terrifying," Good, 23, told Sky News, adding that none of the occupants was injured.

The train network in the Netherlands was paralysed, with no Eurostar and Thalys international services running from Britain and France after damage to overhead power lines.

France and Ireland were also grappling with rail disruption and power cuts, and Germany's rail operator Deutsche Bahn said "more than 1,000 kilometres" (620 miles) of track had suffered damage.

- Explosive storms -

Poland still had 1.2 million customers without electricity on Saturday afternoon, officials said, after the country's northwest took a battering.

"I appeal to you: please stay at home!" Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said in a Facebook post.

"We are constantly monitoring the situation and the appropriate services are at work. The fire brigade has already intervened more than 12,000 times," he said.

In the UK, 226,000 homes and businesses remained without power after 1.2 million others were reconnected.

The toll so far includes four each in the Netherlands and Poland; three in the UK, two dead each in Belgium and Germany, and one in Ireland.

Around 30 people in northern France were injured in storm-related road accidents, and in the Netherlands, dozens of people have to be evacuated from their homes because of fears that a church's clock tower might collapse.

Eunice sparked the first-ever "red" weather warning for London on Friday. It was one of the most powerful tempests in Europe since the "Great Storm" hit Britain and northern France in 1987.

Scientists said both storms packed a "sting jet", a rarely seen meteorological phenomenon borne out of an unusual confluence of pressure systems in the Atlantic that magnified the effects of Eunice.

- Hefty insurance bill -

The Met Office, Britain's meteorological service, on Saturday issued a less severe "yellow" wind warning for much of the south coast of England and South Wales, which it said "could hamper recovery efforts from Storm Eunice".

The UK's total bill for damage could exceed £300 million ($410 million, 360 million euros), according to the Association of British Insurers, based on repairs from previous storms.

At the storm's height, planes struggled to land in ferocious winds, as documented by the YouTube channel Big Jet TV, which streamed the attempts to a mass live following from London's Heathrow airport.

Hundreds of other flights were cancelled or delayed at Heathrow and Gatwick, and Schiphol in Amsterdam.

A section of the roof on London's O2 Arena was shredded, and the spire of a church in the historic city of Wells, southwest England, toppled over.

Ferries across the Channel, the world's busiest shipping lane, were suspended, before the English port of Dover reopened Friday afternoon.

Experts said the frequency and intensity of the storms could not be linked necessarily to climate change.

Therefore, he said, "flooding from coastal storm surges and prolonged deluges will worsen still further when these rare, explosive storms hit us in a warmer world".

D.Smith--NZN