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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 Europe and left transport networks in disarray.
At least 14 people were killed by falling trees, flying debris and high winds in Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Poland, emergency services said.
The latest victim was confirmed by police in the Belgian city of Ghent: a 37-year-old man who was hit in the head by a flyaway solar panel, and died of his injuries on Saturday.
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 and bedroom where Sven Good was working from home, as millions of other Britons heeded government advice to stay indoors.
Good, 23, said he heard a “creak and then a massive bang and the whole house just shuddered”.
“I could feel the whole roof going above me. It was absolutely terrifying,” he told Sky News, adding that none of the occupants was injured.
The train network in the Netherlands was also paralysed, with no Eurostar and Thalys international services running from Britain and France after damage to overhead power lines.
France was grappling too with rail disruption and power cuts, as were Ireland and Germany, where rail operator Deutsche Bahn said “more than 1,000 kilometres” (620 miles) of track had suffered damage.
Poland still had 1.1 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…
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Source : france24
