The first storm of the year in Europe claimed at least three lives in the Netherlands, Belgium and the United Kingdom. Hundreds of people were evacuated due to heavy rain and flooding in Western Europe, causing significant property damage and power outages in thousands of homes.
Several deaths from the storm
This exists in the Netherlands 75-year-old man killed after falling from bicycle Apparently due to strong gusts of wind in a town near the Dutch city of Eindhoven, police said, while in Belgium A 59-year-old woman has died in East Flanders after being hit by a wind-blown fence..
Another man in his 50s died when a tree fell on him As he was driving near the town of Kemble in southwest England, local Gloucestershire County Police reported this Wednesday.
There is also one Woman injured by falling tree in Orpington, southeast of London, during Storm Henk, which has hit the United Kingdom since yesterday.
The storm will last in England until the end of the week
More than 300 flood warnings in England and Wales, Power outages in thousands of homes and transportation disruptions These are the effects of the first storm of the year, which is expected to last more or less until the end of the week.
The storm with speeds of up to 150 kilometers per hour on the Isle of Wight (southern England) has already led to several incidents and changes in rail traffic yesterday, some of which are still closed or delayed today.
10,000 customers without power
Rail operator Greater Anglia said there was “serious disruption”with warnings not to travel on the Norwich, Colchester, Peterborough and Cambridge lines, while South Western Railway warned service disruptions were likely to last throughout the day.
According to authorities, some of England's major roads have been closed due to flooding, including the A52 motorway between the city of Nottingham and the town of Edwalton.
At least that's what the Energy Grid Association, which collects data from all suppliers, estimated 10,000 customers are still without power, and around 125,000 have had power restored.
Belgium activates the alarm plan
In BelgiumThe flooding affected homes and forced authorities to activate the alarm plan, although no major evacuations are currently planned, although 18 people were evacuated from a campsite to a sports center in the southern Walloon province of Namur, according to Belgian media.
Fallen trees, branches blocking traffic on roads, collapsed facades and flooded gardens and garagesparticularly in the provinces on the North Sea coast, are some of the incidents reported in the Netherlands.
In the port cities of IJmuiden And Vlissingen An average wind speed of 9 degrees (strong storm), about 75 kilometers per hour, was measured for over an hour.
Aside from that, A fire on a chicken farm killed around 50,000 chickens., and it took firefighters several hours to put out the flames. The fire broke out after midnight, but the storm's strong winds made extinguishing efforts difficult. However, a second nearby farm was saved.
Red alert for flooding in Calais, awaiting further rain
Nearly Two hundred houses had to be evacuated in several French towns near the port of Calais, close to the Belgian border, due to flooding caused by the rising waters of several rivers, particularly the Aa, which are not expected to subside until the weekend at the earliest.
This Tuesday, authorities began distributing water bottles as restrictions on the use of tap water were imposed on 2,100 residents in the towns of Rebreuve Ranchicourt, Hermin, Caucourt and Gauchin-Legal Leaks detected in supply systems. Electricity was also withdrawn from 1,450 customers.
This morning, evacuations continued in Arques and Blendecques. where the overflowing Aa was covered with up to a meter of water the center of these neighboring cities
The state flood monitoring service Vigicrues has kept the Aa River on alert since Tuesday afternoon after observing “an exceptional reaction” in this basin due to the “significant rainfall” since the beginning of the week in soils already saturated with water.
There are also ten more rivers in this northern region bordering Belgium, on orange clock: the Aisne, the Liane, the Hem, the Lys above Laquette, the Lawe-Clarence, the Oise, the Lys in the plain, the Helpe, the Soire and the Canche.
Since Saturday 450 firefighters from Pas de Calais were mobilizedto which another 120 from other departments were to be added today, according to the instructions of the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, who said on his X account (formerly Twitter) that he gave them at the request of President Emmanuel Macron.
Earthbags along the river as flood protection
He also Northern Germany continues to battle the high levels of its rivers and streams, which caused flooding at the end of last year due to persistent rains and forced some districts to ask the Bundeswehr for help.
The most affected regions remain Lower SaxonyAccording to weather forecasts, up to 80 liters of rain per square meter could fall in southern Saxony-Anhalt and northern Thuringia as well as parts of North Rhine-Westphalia (west) and until Thursday.
The Mansfeld-Südharz district is particularly affected by flooding and where the Disaster declarationasked the Bundeswehr for help and suspended classes in some schools, as the radio and television specialists in the MDR region announced.
Fire departments and residents They build a sandbag wall along the Helme River as flood protection, but they are running out of material.
In Lower Saxony too, after a night of heavy rain and strong wind Flooding situation in some areas of the region And things will be critical in Bremen on Wednesday.
Help from the European Union
The European Union (EU) has started this are mobilizing help after the heavy rains of the last few days in Germany and Francewho asked the Twenty-Seven for support under the EU Civil Protection Mechanism.
Austria, Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Netherlands, Slovenia, Slovakia and Sweden They offered different support options, Brussels said in a statement.