After storm Dudley, the so-called Eunice swept across Europe 48 hours later, causing serious material and human damage. At least eight people were killed, dozens of others injured, when the violent gusts of wind tore roofs, trees and caused spectacular waves on the coasts on Friday February 18. Hundreds of flights, trains and ferries were also canceled across northwestern Europe due to extreme winds from Eunice, which swept through less than 48 hours after Storm Dudley hit the least five dead on the mainland.
In the Netherlands, four people were killed, according to the Dutch emergency services, by falling trees or in accidents during the passage of the storm, which triggered its highest level of alert.
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In Ireland, the first country affected, a 60-year-old man died in the same circumstances in the south-east of the country, according to the police. In London, a woman in her thirties was killed in the afternoon when a tree fell on the car in which she was a passenger, and a man in his fifties was killed near Liverpool (north) while Debris hit the windscreen of the vehicle he was in, according to British police.
In Belgium, a 79-year-old Canadian who lived on a boat in the marina of Ypres (west) died after falling into the water while trying to recover stolen objects, local police reported to AFP . In England, a gust of 196 km / h was recorded on the Isle of Wight, unheard of, while others were measured at more than 110 km / h inland, including at London airport Heathrow.
Flood risk
Millions of Britons have been called to stay at home by the UK Meteorological Service, which had issued a red alert level – the highest – over south-west England, south Wales, but also for the south-east including London. The streets of the capital, for the first time at this alert level since the system was put in place in 2011, were unusually quiet, while part of the canvas covering the O2 Arena, where concerts and sports competitions, was torn apart by the gusts. According to Dutch media, part of the roof of The Hague football stadium was also torn off. Nearly 140,000 homes were without power in the afternoon in the south west of England and Wales, according to the network operator.
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Strong gusts of wind coupled with ongoing high tides raise fears of flooding, especially as heavy rains are expected for Saturday. Cross-Channel ferry traffic was interrupted before an expected resumption at the end of the day, according to the P&O company. More than 400 flights have been canceled at UK airports, according to specialist company Cirium. Airline KLM has canceled more than 200 flights from Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport.
Europe on alert
In Ireland, more than 80,000 homes were also without electricity at midday, according to the local network ESB. After the UK, Eunice was crossing northern Europe to Denmark, where trains will be idling and the Storebaelt Bridge, one of the longest in the world, will most likely have to close most of the night, warned its operator.
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In France, waves sometimes exceeding nine meters were recorded in Brittany (west), according to Météo-France, as well as gusts of wind locally reaching 176 km / h at Cape Gris-Nez (north), according to the private observatory of Keraunos tornadoes. The French railway company SNCF has announced disruptions on its regional lines. Rail traffic was also very disrupted in Belgium, where many schools cut the day short, in northern Germany and in the Netherlands.
Eunice is descending on northern Europe after that continent has already been battered by storms in recent days, with Dudley killing five in Poland and Germany on Thursday. While climate change generally reinforces and multiplies extreme events, it is not so clear for winds and storms (excluding cyclones), the number of which varies greatly from one year to another. The latest report from UN climate experts (IPCC) released in August estimates, with only a very low degree of certainty, that there may have been an increase in the number of storms in the Northern Hemisphere since the 1980s.