17 fatalities so far
“Zeynep” leaves a path of destruction in its wake
2/19/2022, 9:37 p.m
After the “Zeynep” hurricane, Europe is being cleaned up and an initial balance sheet is being drawn up: in addition to the dead and injured, there is severe damage to the infrastructure. The work will continue into the coming week. Meanwhile, storm depression “Antonia” is announced.
The powerful storm “Zeynep” caused great devastation in large parts of Europe. At least 17 people died and more than a million homes in several countries were still without power as of Saturday. Hundreds of flights, trains and ferry connections were canceled due to the storm with its hurricane-like gusts in some areas.
At least 3 people died in Germany, 14 more in Belgium, Great Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands and Poland. Trees that fell on vehicles or objects blown about by the wind were often the cause. Many more people were injured.
The youngest fatality is apparently a 17-year-old who died in the North Rhine-Westphalian district of Steinfurt. He was a passenger in a car that was hit by a tree. According to the police in Cuxhaven, a 68-year-old man fell to his death from the roof of a stable building on Friday evening in the Lower Saxony municipality of Wurster North Sea Coast, on which he had apparently climbed for repair or safety work despite heavy gusts of wind. Near Altenberge in the North Rhine-Westphalian district of Steinfurt, a car on the federal highway 54 was hit by a tree that fell over due to the storm. The driver died at the scene of the accident.
Cause of some deaths still unclear
In the case of another fatal accident in nearby Saerbeck, the cause was not entirely clear, as was the case with other traffic accidents at different locations. In most cases, however, a connection with the storm was assumed. In Essen, according to the police, a pedestrian was hit by a falling roof tile and seriously injured. Rescue workers were deployed in many places.
A severe storm surge was reported from the North Sea coast of Lower Saxony and from Hamburg. Water masses washed away cars in the Hamburg Hafencity area. On the East Frisian island of Wangerooge, a large part of the beach was torn away.
In rail traffic, especially in northern Germany, there were still severe disabilities throughout Saturday. A spokesman for Deutsche Bahn said that restrictions on long-distance traffic were expected until at least Monday afternoon.
1000 kilometers of track damaged
“We are doing everything we can to gradually resume train traffic as quickly as possible,” said the spokesman. There is damage to the railway infrastructure on more than 1000 kilometers of track, said Achim Stauss, spokesman for Deutsche Bahn. 2000 emergency services and helicopters were therefore on the road to check routes for damage or to repair them. Deutsche Bahn again asked all passengers to “postpone planned trips to the storm regions if possible”. There were also obstacles to air travel. Numerous roads and bridges were also temporarily closed.
According to an initial estimate, “Zeynep” caused insured losses of over 900 million euros. The storm was the most intense since “Kyrill” in 2007, said management consultancy Meyerthole Siems Kohlruss (MSK), which specializes in actuarial mathematics. The company had estimated the insured damage from the previous storm “Ylenia” at 500 million euros. The overall damage caused by storms is generally higher, sometimes quite significantly.
The Netherlands and Poland had the most deaths in Europe, where four people died each. Three people died in Britain and Germany. There were two fatalities in Belgium and one in Ireland.
Record speed in the UK
The storm that broke out over Ireland moved across parts of the United Kingdom on Friday, then across northern France and the Benelux countries before hitting Denmark, Germany and later Poland on Saturday night. Record wind speeds – close to 200 km/h in the UK – and heavy rain uprooted trees, damaged roofs and caused flash floods.
According to the authorities, 1.1 million people in Poland were without electricity on Saturday afternoon. In the UK, more than 200,000 households were affected, after more than 1.2 million in the meantime. The fire brigades have been on more than 23,000 missions since Saturday night. According to initial estimates, more than 2,200 buildings were damaged.
In the neighboring Czech Republic, around 26,000 households were affected by power outages. The western administrative regions around Pilsen (Plzen) and Karlsbad (Karlovy Vary) were hardest hit. Shortly after the previous storm “Ylenia”, the fire brigades were again in continuous operation.
In Germany, the storm gradually subsided from Saturday morning. The German Weather Service lifted its warning of severe gusts of wind for all of Germany, but continued to warn of strong winds and gusts of wind. Wind gusts of more than 160 kilometers per hour had previously been measured during the night.
“As early as Sunday, the series of storms will pick up speed again as the next storm depression ‘Antonia’ approaches,” said Adrian Leyser from the weather forecast center of the German Weather Service. “It could get really turbulent and sometimes dangerous on Monday night,” said Leyser about “Antonia”. Heavy gusts of wind or even hurricane-force gusts cannot be ruled out.