Winds gusting to hurricane force on Monday wreaked havoc in parts of western Europe, leaving tens of thousands of homes without power, forcing flight cancellations and the closure of roads and bridges.
In France, at least 60,000 homes were without power at one point, more than half of them in the western provinces of Brittany and Normandy, which later dropped to about 15,000 outages by late afternoon, electricity grid operator EDF said.
The strongest gusts were recorded on the Breton tourist island of Belle-Ile, where the wind reached 150kph.
Photo: AP
In Britain, the same weather system — dubbed “Storm Katie” — left a trail of disruption in its wake as it swept across southern England overnight, leaving debris and roadwork barriers strewn across London’s streets.
Police in Surrey were searching for a missing person after his kayak capsized in the River Wey.
Winds gusting to 170kph forced the cancelation of about 150 flights in and out of Britain and cut power to more than 100,000 homes, with about 60,000 still without electricity by late afternoon, local utilities reported.
Heathrow Airport, one of the world’s busiest airports, reported about 130 cancellations, with other flights delayed or diverted to other airports on the busy Easter holiday weekend.
About 20 flights in and out of London’s Gatwick Airport were canceled and another four diverted.
Some airline passengers took to Twitter to describe their experience, with Michele Grant saying that she was grateful to have landed at London Stansted Airport after “terrifying and fruitless attempts to land at Gatwick.”
A bridge crossing the River Thames in southeast England and the Severn Bridge, which connects England and Wales, were also closed, according to Highways England.
“It is particularly southern parts of England bearing the brunt of Storm Katie, but also into parts of East Anglia as well, with these potentially damaging and disruptive gusts of wind of 60 to 70mph [97kph to 113kph] — but possibly more in the most exposed areas,” BBC weather forecaster Nick Miller said.
In the Netherlands, winds gusting to 113kph threatened to rip the roof off a complex of 28 apartments that had to be evacuated, public TV operator NOS reported.
Easter holiday events were canceled due to the bad weather, and fallen trees damaged cars and forced a brief closing of an expressway.
High winds in Belgium also knocked down trees and led environment officials to close public parks in Brussels, which they said could reopen yesterday after inspections and cleaning up the debris.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the