Berlin/London - Hurricane-force Storm Xaver
blasted towards mainland Europe on Thursday after cutting transport and
power in northern Britain and killing three people in what
meteorologists warned could be the worst storm to hit the continent in
years.
British authorities said the
Thames Barrier, designed to protect London from flooding during
exceptional tides, would shut on Thursday night and warned of “the most
serious coastal tidal surge for over 60 years in England”. Prime
Minister David Cameron called two emergency meetings to discuss
strategy.
Two people were killed in Britain
as the nation's weather office measured winds of up to 220km/h when the
storm slammed Scotland and parts of England.
A lorry driver was killed and four
people injured when his vehicle overturned and collided with other
vehicles in West Lothian, Scotland, police said, while a second man died
near Nottingham in central England when he was hit by a falling tree.
In western Denmark, the 72-year-old female passenger of a truck died when the vehicle overturned in high winds.
More than 100 000 homes were left without power across Britain, 80 000 of them in Scotland, according to energy company SSE.
North
Sea oil and gas producers including ConocoPhillips , Maersk Oil, and
Statoil cut production and evacuated staff from some platforms.
All train services in Scotland
were cancelled on Thursday morning due to debris on the tracks but
services were slowly restored during the day. Lifeboat crews were called
to rescue people from flooded homes in Rhyl in north Wales.
Low-lying coastal areas of eastern
England were waiting for the storm to hit on Thursday evening, with the
Environment Agency issuing 41 severe flood warnings, the highest
category.
Police were advising more than 15
000 people to evacuate east coast areas vulnerable to tidal surges,
although sea defences have been strengthened since storms and flooding
killed hundreds on the North Sea coast in 1953.
Germany's northern port of Hamburg
was preparing for a direct hit, which some forecasters said could be as
powerful as a storm and flood in the city in 1962 that killed 315.
Of the 377 planes that had been
due to land at or take off from Hamburg airport on Thursday, 120 were
cancelled or diverted due to high winds. The airport said it expected
further cancellations and delays on Friday.
In
Hamburg a fish market was flooded. Many schools and Christmas markets
were closed. Ferries to Germany's North Sea islands were kept in port
and some industrial plants closed.
“The truly dangerous thing about
this storm is that the winds will continue for hours and won't let up,”
said Andreas Friedrich, a German weather service meteorologist. “The
danger of coastal flooding is high.”
Friedrich said people were being
advised to stay indoors because of the risk of trees being toppled or
roofs blown off. An extreme weather warning was issued for the northern
states of Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony and Bremen.
The German transport ministry said
until Sunday people should limit travel by road and rail to journeys
which are “absolutely necessary”. Train services were restricted.
The Oresund bridge linking
southern Sweden with Denmark was shut at 15h00 GMT. Some railway lines
in southern Sweden were closed, with high winds expected in the south
and heavy snow further north.
In Denmark, railroad company DSB
said it would stop operating most trains. Airline Alsie Express
cancelled all domestic flights and the 6.8km Great Belt Bridge, which
includes a 1.6km suspension bridge section, was closed.
Copenhagen
Airport, the Nordic region's busiest airport, closed to all traffic on
Thursday evening until Friday at 07.00 GMT due to the storm.
Trains in the northern Netherlands
were halted, Dutch Railways said. At Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport 50
flights were cancelled, a spokeswoman said, adding there could be
further cancellations. - Reuters
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