Three people in Spain and one in Germany were killed, and a child was crushed to death in Portugal. One death was reported in Belgium. Although Britain was not hit, London’s Thames Barrier - the capital’s flood defense - was closed yesterday morning as a precaution.
Nearly 900,000 people in France were without electricity. Rivers overflowed in Brittany, while high tides and enormous waves swamped Atlantic communities in the early-morning hours.
Sea walls broke in the town of L’Aguillon, where the ocean waters reached the roofs of some homes. Helicopters lifted people to safety throughout the day.
A retired couple who had parked their car on the waterfront in the town Moutier-en-Retz died when the vehicle was swallowed by rushing waters.
The threat of avalanches was high in the Pyrenees and the southern Alps due to wind and wet snow. Roofs were ripped off, chimneys collapsed, and the wind shattered the windows at a brewery in eastern France.
In Paris, winds knocked over motorcycles and spewed garbage around the streets. At least 100 flights were canceled and many more delayed at the two main Paris airports. A number of trains throughout France were delayed because of flooded tracks.
Winds reached about 130 miles per hour on the summits of the Pyrenees and up to nearly 100 miles per hour along the Atlantic coast. The storm hit the Vendee and Charente-Maritime regions in southwestern France hardest.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux planned to visit the worst-hit regions today.
The storm was moving eastward, and parts of France along the border with Germany and Belgium were on alert for heavy rain and high winds.
Officials in Germany said scores of flights and trains have been canceled or delayed in the country’s southwestern region. One man was killed in the Black Forest area when winds brought a tree down onto his car.
Fallen trees also closed many stretches of train tracks in the states of Rhineland-Palatinate, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, and Saarland. High winds caused the cancellation of 119 flights from Frankfurt’s airport, while scores of others were delayed or diverted.
