First storm of the year in Europe: three deaths, serious flooding and power cuts

The first storm of the year in Europe left at least three dead in Netherlands, Belgium It is UKas well as hundreds of people evacuated due to heavy rain and flooding in Western Europe, with significant material damage and power cuts to thousands of homes.

An aerial view shows caravans surrounded by floodwaters at Rayford Caravan Park in Stratford-upon-Avon, central England, on January 3, 2024, after the River Avon burst its banks following Storm Henk, which brought strong winds and heavy rain. part of the country. (Photo by Ben STANSALL/AFP) (BEN STANSALL/)

In Netherlands A 75-year-old man died after falling from his bicycle, apparently due to strong gusts of wind, in a town near the Dutch city of Eindhovenaccording to the police, while Belgium A 59-year-old woman died in Flanders east, after receiving the impact of a fence blown by the wind.

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Another 50-year-old man died when a tree fell on him while he was driving near the city of Kemblein southwest England, the local County Police reported this Wednesday. Gloucestershire.

There is also a woman injured by a falling tree in Orpingtonsouth east London during the storm Henkthat’s been beating since yesterday UK.

More than 300 alerts of floods in England It is WelshPower cuts in thousands of homes and transport interruptions are the effects of the first storm of the year, which is expected to last, to a greater or lesser extent, until the end of the week.

The storm, with gusts that reached around 150 kilometers per hour on the island of person (South English), yesterday has already caused several incidents and changes in the rail servicesome of whose lines remain closed or delayed to this day.

The railway operator Greater Anglia He said he experiences “serious outages”, with warnings not to travel on transport routes. Norwich, Colchester, Peterborough and Cambridgewhile South Western Railway warned that service disruptions were likely to last all day.

Some of England’s main roads were closed due to flooding, including A52 Highway between the city of Nottingham and the people of Edwaltonaccording to authorities.

O Power Grid Associationwhich collects data from all suppliers, calculated that at least 10,000 customers They remain without electricity, after around 125,000 have recovered it.

In Belgium, floods affected homes and forced authorities to activate the alert plan, although for now no major evacuations are planned, although 18 people were evicted from a campsite to a sports center in the province of Wallonia Namurto the south, according to Belgian media.

Fallen trees, branches that interrupt traffic on the roads, demolished facades and flooded gardens and garages, especially in the coastal provinces of North Seaare some of the incidents reported in Netherlands.

In the port cities of IJmuiden It is Vlissingen An average wind strength of 9 degrees (strong storm), about 75 kilometers per hour, was measured for more than an hour.

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Furthermore, a fire at a farm killed some 50,000 chickens, and it took firefighters several hours to put out the flames. The fire started after midnight, but the storm’s strong winds made extinguishing tasks difficult; However, a second nearby farm was saved.

Almost two hundred homes had to be evacuated in several French towns near the port of Calaisnear the border with Belgium, due to flooding caused by the rise of water in several rivers, and in particular the Ohwhich should not decrease until at least the weekend.

Authorities began distributing bottled water this Tuesday when restrictions were imposed on the use of tap water for 2,100 inhabitants in the towns of Rebreuve Ranchicourt, Hermin, Caucourt and Gauchin-Legal, due to leaks observed in supply facilities. Likewise, 1,450 customers were deprived of electricity.

This morning evacuations continued in Chests and blendecqueswhere he Oh The overflow covered the centers of these neighboring cities with up to a meter of water.

The state flood monitoring service Surveillance Rio has been on red alert since Tuesday afternoon Oh when checking “an exceptional reaction” in that basin to “significant rains” since the beginning of the week, in soils already saturated with water.

There are also ten other rivers throughout that region of the Northin the border Belgiumin orange surveillance: the Aisne, the Liane, the Hem, the Lys above Laquette, the Lawe-Clarence, the Oise, the Lys on the plain, the Helpe, the Soire, and the Canche.

Since Saturday, 450 firefighters have been mobilized from Pas de Calaisto which 120 more from other departments were added today, following the instructions of the Minister of the Interior, Gerald Darmaninwho on his account X (formerly Twitter) said he had delivered them at the request of the president, Emmanuel Macron.

Northern Germany also continues to struggle with high levels of its rivers and streams, which already caused flooding at the end of last year due to constant rain and which forced some districts to ask for help from the federal army.

The most affected regions continue Lower Saxonysouth of Saxony-Anhalt and the north of Thuringiaas well as parts North Rhine-Westphalia (west) and, according to weather forecasts, up to 80 liters of rain per square meter could fall by Thursday.

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The district of Mansfeld-Südharzespecially affected by the floods and where the declaration of calamity has been in force since last Saturday, asked the Bundeswehr (German Army) and suspended classes in some schools, according to radio and television specialized in the MDR region.

Fire departments and residents are building a sandbag wall along the river Helme as flood protection, but they are running out of material.

Also in Lower SaxonyAfter a night of heavy rain and strong winds, the flood situation in some areas of the region and in Bream It’s critical on Wednesday.

O European Union (EU) began mobilizing aid following the heavy rains of recent days in Germany and Francewho asked the Twenty-Seven for help through the Mechanism in Civil Protection from the HUH.

Austria, Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Netherlands, Slovenia, Slovakia and Sweden They offered different means of support, Brussels said in a statement.

Source: Elcomercio