The passage of storm Eunice through Europe left deaths and damage

A house near London, destroyed by the storm /AP

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Storm Eunice, which hit northwestern Europe, left 16 dead and caused significant property damage and massive power outages.

The storm formed in Ireland and passed through parts of the United Kingdom on Friday, then yesterday through northern France and the Benelux countries (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg) before continuing on to Denmark and Germany, where a third of the north of the country was put on red alert.

In Germany, “more than a thousand kilometers of railways were damaged”, according to a spokesman for the Deutsche Bahn railway company, mainly due to falling trees that partially paralyzed traffic in the north of the country.

Hundreds of flights, trains and ferries have been canceled across northwestern Europe because of Eunice’s winds, less than 48 hours after Storm Dudley killed at least six people in Poland and Germany.

So far, 16 deaths due to Eunice have been reported: four in Poland, two in Germany, four in the Netherlands, three in England, one in Ireland and two in Belgium.

Many of these deaths were caused by trees falling on vehicles.

In the Netherlands, dozens of houses were evacuated in the capital, The Hague, fearing a church tower would collapse.

Meanwhile, according to the British weather agency, clean-up operations could be disrupted by a new, albeit weaker, gale expected in some parts of the UK, as well as some snowfall.

At least 226,000 homes were still without electricity yesterday in the country, where insurers estimate the damage at more than 300 million pounds (360 million euros, 400 million dollars). There were winds of up to 200 km. per hour.

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