LONDON — Strong winds battered parts of Britain and Northern
Europe on Friday, leading to the death of at least one person, damaging
buildings and severely disrupting travel. The storm, called Eunice, was the
second in less than a week to hit the region and was expected to be the worst
in 30 years, a weather official in Britain said.
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Britain’s national weather service, the Meteorological Office,
said a wind gust of 122 mph was recorded on the Isle of Wight, off the south
coast of England, which if confirmed would be the country’s highest ever.
Severe weather warnings were also issued in Belgium and the Netherlands.
Richard Miles, a spokesperson for the Met Office, said the storm
was going to be more significant than any since one in January 1990 that killed
dozens of people in England.
On Friday, a man in his 60s was struck and killed by a falling
tree in southeast Ireland, the country’s police service said in a statement.
The man, an employee of the Wexford County Council, was helping to clear debris
from the storm.
There were no other immediate reports of deaths, and the extent
of the damage was unclear. The London Fire Brigade said it had received more
emergency calls over a 2 1/2 hour period Friday than it normally received in a
day. The London Ambulance Service also said it was responding to a high number
of calls and urged people not to call about fallen trees unless there were
injuries.
About 1,000 people were evacuated from the O2 Arena in London,
one of Britain’s largest concert venues, after part of the building’s roof was
shredded by the wind. There were no reports of injuries and no structural
damage to the arena, the London Fire Brigade said.
More than 200 flights were canceled at airports across Northern
Europe, with most of the cancellations at Amsterdam’s Schipol Airport,
according to FlightAware, a flight-tracking website.
A livestream of jets attempting to land at Heathrow Airport in
London was being watched by more than 200,000 people at one point. The video,
on a YouTube channel for aviation enthusiasts, was hosted by Jerry Dyer, who
provided colorful commentary with each landing. As one plane tilted and drifted
toward the tarmac, Dyer said, “Easy, son, easy, easy,” before a successful
landing, earning a “Nicely done” from Dyer.
Train service in parts of Britain was also disrupted, with Wales
canceling all service for the day because of the weather. Network Rail, which
owns and operates Britain’s rail infrastructure, urged people not to travel
“unless absolutely necessary” and suspended some service in southern England on
Friday afternoon because of debris blocking the tracks, including fallen trees,
a trampoline and the roof of a building. Service was also suspended into and
out of major train stations in London, including Waterloo and Euston.
The Port of Dover in southeastern England was temporarily closed
to shipping Friday afternoon. Ferry services were also suspended between Dover
and Calais, France, and canceled in the north of England between Newcastle and
Amsterdam.
Scores of schools districts along the southern and western
coasts of Britain were closed Friday, and attractions in and around London,
including the London Eye, were also forced to close because of dangerous winds.
Plans for Prince Charles to visit Newport and Swansea, on the south coast of
Wales, were also canceled Friday in the “interest of public safety.”
As of early afternoon, more than 150,000 customers in Britain
had lost electricity, according to PowerOutage.com, which aggregates data from
utilities.
A wider swath of the United Kingdom was under an amber warning,
indicating a high risk for power outages, damage to buildings and trees, the
Met Office said. Windy conditions could also scatter debris along beaches.
The northern edge of the storm was expected to bring the risk of
snow to parts of Britain, and some areas could see blizzard conditions.
In the Netherlands, rail service was temporarily suspended, and
professional soccer games Friday were postponed. In Belgium, some schools
closed early because of the storm.
The storm was expected to clear out by the end of the day, Miles
said, but conditions will remain windy over the weekend.
Eunice comes just after another storm, Dudley, knocked out power
across parts of Britain and Northern
Europe and sent waves crashing through a
ferry in Hamburg, Germany, causing damage.
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