Hurricane Winds, Floods Wreak Havoc Across Europe

January 3, 2003
By Erik Kirschbaum

BERLIN (Reuters) - Hurricane force winds and torrential rains battered Europe on Friday, killing at least six people, flooding tens of thousands of homes and hampering rail, road and waterway traffic.

Winds of nearly 125 mph and flooding caused chaos in Germany, France, Britain, Portugal, Belgium, Austria, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic with barge traffic halted on key rivers and toppled trees blocking roads and rail lines.

There were also widespread power outages from the storms, which refocused attention on the odd weather in Europe this winter that has left parts of the Alps without snow because of unseasonably warm temperatures while leaving northern Europe shivering from a cold snap not experienced for decades.

Belgium, swamped by the worst floods in a nearly a decade, put its army on flood alert as many parts the country came under almost a meter (three feet) of water.

The French-speaking south and Dutch-speaking west of the country were worst affected by two weeks of heavy rains.

"Almost every house in this region has suffered grave damage," said Philippe Cloet, a neighborhood flood coordinator in the western town of Ghent.

"All these people will be confronted with water-related problems for the next six months. Because when it subsides, then the real misery begins." Germany's Munich Re, the world's biggest reinsurer, said the total losses to insurers in Germany alone could be as high as the 650 million dollars caused by a storm that hit the country's southwestern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg in 1999.

WIND, RAIN, SNOW Hurricane force winds of up to 120 mph buffeted Germany where a 13-year-old boy was killed and his father was seriously injured when a tree crashed onto their car. An 18-year-old died when his car flipped over on ice near Hamburg.

In Romania, floods caused by melting snow killed three people and destroyed hundreds of homes.

In France, a disabled man drowned on Thursday in the village of Oches in the northern Ardennes region after falling into a flooded ditch, the local government said.

Winds cut electricity to thousands and rain has exacerbated flooding in parts of the west and northwest of the country. Paris was also on flood alert on fears the Seine would rise higher after authorities issued an initial warning.

Flood warnings across Britain remained in force, mostly in the south of the country. Torrential rain over the past week has already caused widespread flooding, causing accidents and severe disruption to the nation's railway services.

In Portugal, heavy overnight rains caused landslides, closed roads and flooded several towns. Emergency workers were also searching for cars which witnesses said had plunged into the River Douro, running through Portugal's famed port wine region. Winds of up to 60 mph hit Austria early on Friday, temporarily cutting off power to thousands of homes.

The Dutch government issued a warning that the Meuse river would rise to near flood levels later on Friday and urged people in the towns of Itteren and Borgharen to evacuate ground floors.

RHINE PARTIALLY CLOSED

Authorities in Germany said swollen Rhine tributaries, the Mosel and Main rivers, had broken their banks in many areas, bringing barge traffic to a halt.

Traffic on the Rhine, one of the world's busiest waterways, was restricted in some areas. A 144 km (90 mile) segment of the river south of Cologne was closed, German river police said.

"It's been raining here hard for the last three days," said an official at the water and shipping office in Cologne, where the Rhine was more than five meters (16 ft) higher than normal at 8.18 meters and expected to reach a level of 8.30 meters later on Friday.

Germany is still paying billions of dollars to repair damage caused by devastating floods that sent river levels in the east to record highs last August, swamping cities such as Dresden.

The German weather service is forecasting more heavy rain that is likely to swell rivers further.

In Helsinki, by contrast, a dry cold snap not seen in the past four decades has been so extreme that the Finnish government has urged people to limit their use of the beloved sauna even as temperatures plunged -- due to fears of power shortages.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6608-2003Jan3.html