x

Society

Northern Europe Battered by 3rd Major Storm; Deaths Hit 14

February 21, 2022

LONDON — Northern Europe was battered by the third major storm in five days, with heavy rains and high winds on Sunday and Monday killing at least two more people, disrupting travel and prompting hundreds of flood alerts across a region still recovering from last week’s hurricane-force winds.

Storm Franklin pushed in from the North Atlantic on Sunday afternoon even as crews worked to clear fallen trees and restore power to thousands of customers hit by storms Dudley and Eunice last week. Heavy rains and high winds swept across Northern Ireland and northern England before moving on to France. England’s environment agency issued more than 300 flood warnings and alerts and train operators urged people not to travel.

In France, a couple in their 70s died Sunday after their car was swept into the English Channel near a small town in Normandy. The couple had called for help but it did not reach them in time.

A car is destroyed by a fallen tree after a storm in Schwerin, Germany, Monday, Feb. 21, 2022. ( Jens Buettner/dpa via AP)

“With the wind, the car skidded,” Herve Bougon, mayor of Bricqueville-Sur-Mer, told the Ouest-France newspaper. “It was pushed onto its side as it sank into the water.”

At least 14 people have died across Europe during a week of wild weather that meteorologists say is being fueled by an unusually strong jet stream over the North Atlantic. The storms have left hundreds of thousands of people without power and triggered local flooding and evacuations as high winds ripped the roofs off buildings.

Gusts of up to 87 mph (140 kph) were recorded late Sunday on the Isle of Wight on Sunday after the U.K.’s weather service warned that Storm Franklin would produce widespread winds of 60 mph to 70 mph. A gust of 122 mph (196 kph), provisionally the highest ever recorded in England, was measured Friday on the Isle of Wight as Storm Eunice hit the region. Hurricane-level winds start at 74 mph.

In Germany, the latest storm was less severe than its immediate predecessors, but it still brought down trees and ripped the roof off a house in Herdecke, near Dortmund. Two drivers drove into a fallen tree in Belm, in northern Germany, and were taken to the hospital.

Official weather warnings in Germany, where the latest storm is known as Antonia, were lifted on Monday, though disruption to transport continued in northern parts of the country.

Insurance broker Aon estimated the insured damage in Germany from the successive storms at 1.6 billion euros ($1.8 billion). The Dutch insurers’ association estimated that the three storms caused at least 500 million euros ($567 million) of damage across the Netherlands.

People walk on a stormy day at the beach of the Baltic Sea in Wustrow, Germany, Monday, Feb. 21, 2022. (Jens Buettner/dpa via AP)

Despite preparations and warning by weather authorities, “the February storms have sparked a record number of claims and an enormous damages bill,” said Richard Weurding, general director of the Dutch Association of Insurers.

The storms blew roofs off buildings and uprooted trees across the Netherlands, killing four people on Friday as Eunice lashed the country. Insurers warned that more damage could still be to come with strong winds forecast in coming days.

In Denmark, the storm uprooted trees and disrupted rail services in and around Copenhagen, the capital. Sweden saw heavy snowfall that shut down buses in its capital city of Stockholm.

RELATED

ATHENS - Voters should see the whole picture when they go to cast their ballot in the European Parliament elections on June 9, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in an interview on Thursday.

Top Stories

Columnists

A pregnant woman was driving in the HOV lane near Dallas.

General News

NEW YORK – Meropi Kyriacou, the new Principal of The Cathedral School in Manhattan, was honored as The National Herald’s Educator of the Year.

Video

Over 100 Pilot Whales Beached on Western Australian Coast Have Been Rescued, Officials Say

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — More than 100 long-finned pilot whales that beached on the western Australian coast Thursday have returned to sea, while 29 died on the shore, officials said.

BAYSIDE, NY – Daughters of Penelope (DOP) Ilion Chapter 135 continues to keep the light shining bright within.

NEW YORK – Mike Labatos, AHEPA District 6 Lt.

Cretans are known for loving their guns but the island has the dubious record of having the highest rates of suicide in Greece over the last 25 years, averaging 2.

ATHENS - Forgetting the 2010-18 economic and austerity crisis that saw people so desperate they were picking food out of rubbish and supermarket bins, Greeks are among the European countries with the ignominious title of food wasters.

Enter your email address to subscribe

Provide your email address to subscribe. For e.g. [email protected]

You may unsubscribe at any time using the link in our newsletter.