Environment

Storm wreaks havoc in Ireland, France and Britain

The storm disrupted transport in Ireland, the UK and France.

A winter storm with strong winds, heavy rain, snow and ice battered northwestern Europe on Saturday, leaving Ireland, the UK and France with travel disruption and one person dead.

Hampshire Police in southern England said a man was killed when a tree fell on his car on a highway near Winchester early in the morning.

West Yorkshire Police said they were investigating whether a second death in a road crash was linked to the storm. It appears that the road surface was not icy at the time of the accident.

Storm Bart knocked out power to at least 60,000 properties in Ireland and closed roads and some ferry and rail routes on both sides of the Irish Sea.

In the UK, Channel ports and airports were severely damaged, while tens of thousands of people in France were left without power after Thursday’s storm. A power outage halted trains and left hundreds of passengers stranded.

Media footage showed flooding in the west of Ireland and railway closures in Northern Ireland. Snow affected travel across the UK.

The heaviest snow has hit parts of Scotland and northern and central England, with flood warnings issued in dozens of places.

The Met Office has issued a snow and ice warning for these areas, saying there is “a good chance some rural areas will be cut off”.

Up to 40 centimeters of snow fell on Scottish hills, and winds of close to 113 km/h (70 mph) were recorded in Britain.

Ferry operator DFDS has suspended some services until Monday, with routes from Newhaven and Dover in southern England to Dieppe and Calais in France severely affected.

Heavy snowfall disrupted operations at Newcastle Airport, with some flights diverted to Belfast and Edinburgh.

power outage

Avanti West Coast, which operates rail services between England and Scotland, advised customers not to attempt to travel beyond the northern English city of Preston as a number of trains were cancelled.

Highways has also issued a “severe weather warning”, warning of “blizzard conditions” affecting Yorkshire and the north-east of England, with a number of road closures announced.

Met Eireann, from Ireland’s National Weather Service, also warned of “very strong winds and heavy rain”.

According to ESB Networks, which operates the country’s electricity system, the areas in Ireland most affected by power outages were in the west and north-west counties.

“Crews and contractors have been dispatched and are safely restoring power to the affected areas.”

In the UK, the National Grid operator said power had been restored to “many homes and businesses” but more than 4,000 properties across the country remained without power as of Saturday, the majority in south-west England. did.

About 47,000 homes in northern France remained without power on Saturday, two days after Storm Caetano caused damage, power company Enedis said.

The storm left up to 270,000 people without power, and Enedis said 2,000 engineers were working to reconnect power lines destroyed by 130km/h winds.

Hundreds of passengers were stranded on two trains in western France that were shut down due to a power outage.

Around 200 people were on the train from Hendaye to Bordeaux, and around 400 on the high-speed TGV from Hendaye to Paris, spending up to nine hours in the cars.

Transport Undersecretary François Delovret told RTL radio that up to 1,000 passengers on different trains were affected by the power outage.

© 2024 AFP

Source: Storms bring chaos to Ireland, France, UK (24 November 2024) from https://phys.org/news/2024-11-storms-chaos-ireland-france-uk.html 11/2024 Retrieved on March 24th

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