Deadly storm hits UK and Netherlands

At least three killed as fierce winds cut power and cause widespread travel disruption across northern Europe. Last Modified: 28 Oct 2013 14:59 Email Print Share Feedback http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2013/10/deadly-storm-hits-uk-netherlands-20131028133132894270.html

Heavy winds in the low-lying Netherlands shut down all train traffic to Amsterdam [Reuters]

A strong storm has battered Britain and the Netherlands, killing three people, cutting power and forcing hundreds of plane and train cancellations as it moved on across mainland Europe. Winds of up to 160km per hour lashed southern England and Wales on Monday, disrupting the travel plans of millions of commuters - the worst storm recorded in Britain in a decade. A 17-year-old girl was killed when a tree fell onto her home while she slept in the county of Kent, southeast of London, while a man in his 50s was killed when a tree crushed his car in the town of Watford, just north of the capital. This one is developing as it crosses the UK, which is why it brings the potential for significant disruption...and that doesn't happen very often. Helen Chivers, British Met Office A crane smashed into the Cabinet Office, a ministry in the heart of London, forcing Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg to cancel a press conference. Heavy winds also swept across the Netherlands, uprooting trees and shutting down all train traffic to Amsterdam. They were forecast to peak at more than 130 kph by early afternoon. A woman was killed and two people were seriously hurt by falling trees in the Dutch capital and a ferry carrying 1,000 people from the English city of Newcastle was unable to dock in the port of IJmuiden and returned to sea, RTL television said. Fifty flights at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport were cancelled and Rotterdam Port, Europe's busiest, said incoming and outgoing vessels were delayed. In France, winds topping 100kph struck the north and northwest, felling trees, whipping up seas and cutting power supplies to around 75,000 homes, according to the ERDF electricity distribution company. 'An unusual storm' "The thing that's unusual about this one is that most of our storms develop out over the Atlantic so that they've done all their strengthening and deepening by the time they reach us," said Helen Chivers, spokeswoman for Britain's Met office on Sunday. "This one is developing as it crosses the UK, which is why it brings the potential for significant disruption ... and that doesn't happen very often." The worst of the storm in Britain had passed by late morning, despite strong winds still battering the east coast, a Met Office spokeswoman said, and it had moved across northern France by the afternoon. The strongest winds are now over the northern Netherlands, northern Germany and Denmark, with the storm also expected to move onto the coast of Finland early on Tuesday.