Death toll mounts as storms lash Europe

PARIS – Hurricane-force winds, surging seas and driving rain lashed western Europe yesterday, leaving at least 16 people dead and more than a million households without power.

Dubbed ‘Xynthia’, the Atlantic storm crashed against the western coasts of France and Spain overnight, bringing with it a band of foul weather stretching from Portugal to the Netherlands.Gusts of up to 150 kilometres per hour and eight metre waves battered the western coast of France, spreading floods inland and sending residents scurrying onto rooftops.Authorities announced five deaths in the low-lying Vendee region, where flood waters in some coastal towns reached 1,5 metres, and five more further south in Charente-Maritime.Air sea rescue and police helicopters were in action over the region, attempting to locate flood victims marooned on roofs.In all, 12 people were confirmed dead in France over the weekend, most of them drowned in the west coast flooding, but some killed by flying debris.In Spain, regional authorities said yesterday that two men aged 51 and 41 died when their car was hit by a falling tree. An 82-year-old woman was killed Saturday when a wall collapsed in the Galicia region.Portugal said Saturday that a 10-year-old boy was killed by a falling branch in the northwest of the country.In France, fallen powerlines caused blackouts for around a million homes across a 500 kilometre swathe of the country from the Brittany peninsula to the highlands of the Massif Central.Air France said 70 flights out of 700 were cancelled from its hub at Paris Charles de Gaulle, where an AFP reporter saw sections of one terminal roof starting to come loose.The storm brought chaos to transport networks across western Europe at the end of French schools’ half-term break.According to a report on Europe 1 radio, wind speeds hit 175 kilometres per hour at the tip of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, but the storm fell short of the record 200-kph levels of the deadly 1999 hurricane.The storm swept northeast into northwestern Spain late on Saturday afternoon, where wind gusts reached 147 kph and some 27 000 households were without electricity, regional authorities said. – Nampa-AFP

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