This content was published on February 18, 2022 – 20:03
Brussels, Feb 18 (EFE).- A man has died and several people have been injured in Belgium due to the strong winds of Storm Eunice, which has also caused significant material damage, such as falling roofs and trees.
According to the Belgian news agency, half a dozen were injured.
The fatal victim, a 79-year-old Canadian who was in a pleasure boat in the port of Ypres, died after falling into the water. The man was rescued and taken to hospital in critical condition, where he died.
Most of the injuries and property damage have been the result of falling roofs or falling trees and branches in different parts of the country.
Thus, an eighteen-year-old boy is in critical condition after a branch fell on him while he was running with his mother in Menen.
In addition, a crane that was used in the construction of a hospital in the town of Tournai fell on a building that houses the geriatrics department of the hospital.
Staff and patients are uninjured and evacuated to another wing of the hospital, but the crane operator was injured and had to be rescued by emergency services, although he was conscious when treated by paramedics.
Eunice has also caused damage to the roof of one of the terminals at the Brussels-Zaventem airport, where air traffic has been suspended.
“Current weather conditions make operations unsafe. As a result, there are currently no flights departing,” the airport said on its Twitter profile.
Parts of the roofs of two hospitals in Antwerp and Oudenaarde have also been blown off, and an oil tanker and a cargo ship have drifted in wind farms off the Belgian coast.
The storm has also caused interruptions in rail traffic and the public transport company of the Flanders region, De Lijn, has suspended the circulation of buses in the province of West Flanders.
The winds have exceeded 100 kilometers per hour and have reached 133 kilometers per hour at the Ostend airport, according to Belga. EFE
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