LONDON, October 26 (Aalimi Nation) – Two storms, Austen and Boelo, struck northern Europe over the weekend, killing one man in Scotland, injuring several people across the region and leaving more than 150,000 homes without electricity.
A 60-year-old man died on Sunday when a tree fell on his vehicle on a minor road near Castle Douglas in Dumfries and Galloway, in south-west Scotland. Police said there were no suspicious circumstances. In central Scotland, another falling tree injured two women.
Winds, flooding and warnings
Storm Boelo brought gusts of up to 135 km/h in Argyll and Bute in western Scotland. Fallen trees and power cables blocked roads and rail lines in Scotland and northern England. The Met Office, the UK's national weather service, warned of a danger to life from flying debris and large waves and advised people to stay indoors. Authorities also warned of flood risk in parts of Scotland and England.
Austen had arrived earlier, bringing heavy rain and strong winds on Friday and Saturday. On Friday it blew away an unused pier in Brighton on England's south coast.
Power cuts across three countries
More than 82,000 homes in the UK, nearly 60,000 in France and at least 10,000 in Germany were without power on Sunday. In Scotland, the network operator SSEN said around 38,000 customers were still without electricity on Sunday evening after supply had been restored to about 54,000. Another operator, SP Energy Networks, said about 4,500 customers remained cut off.
In France, the energy company Enedis said about 288,000 homes lost power at the peak of Austen on Saturday. By midday on Sunday about 59,000 were still without supply, mainly in Normandy and Brittany. A marathon runner in northern France was lightly injured by a falling tree.
In Germany, Austen cut power to about 10,000 homes around Freiburg-Breisgau. The main hospital in the town limited its services to emergencies, and the outage also knocked out mobile phone service. Police said two people were seriously injured on Saturday when scaffolding blew over at a market in Nastatten.
Injuries and disruption elsewhere
In Brussels, falling trees injured four people on Saturday. Off the Dutch coast, north of the island of Schiermonnikoog, three crew members on a cargo ship were injured. The coastguard said two of them were airlifted to a hospital on the mainland by helicopter.
Hundreds of flights were cancelled or diverted across northern Europe, including at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport.
Experts have warned that climate change is likely to bring more extreme weather events,.
