In the Netherlands and Poland, four people each died, in Britain – three, in Germany and Belgium – two each, in Ireland – one, in addition, many were injured in car accidents. In northern France, 30 people were injured in a road accident.
According to the official classification of meteorologists, the hurricane with the female name Eunice fell into the category of storms rather than hurricanes, but it turned out to be one of the most powerful natural disasters of its kind in Europe over the past 30 years. On Friday, wind gusts of more than 200 kilometers per hour were recorded in some places. Millions of homes were temporarily without electricity, trains and other public transport stopped in many regions, and airports in the disaster zone canceled hundreds of flights, the BBC reports.
As Euronews notes, the hurricane moved from Ireland to Great Britain, then through northern France and the Benelux countries to Denmark and Germany (where the hurricane was named Zeynep). The rampant nature led to the breakdown of power lines, destruction of buildings and flooding of coastal areas.
A powerful disaster hit the UK: in anticipation of worsening weather, a red alert level was declared in London. According to Sky News, 1.2 million people in the UK were left without electricity on Friday due to the storm, with 155,000 still to be restored.
Deutsche Bahn – German Railways – announced that Eunice damaged power grids and signals along 1,000 kilometers of track. In northwestern Poland, about a million more households remained without power on Saturday.
The Dutch coast guard is searching the North Sea for 26 empty containers that washed up off the Dutch and German coast from a container ship bound for Germany. Helicopters and tugboats are involved in the search, and ships in the area have also been warned about the containers at sea.
The cyclone affected the Kaliningrad region and Lithuania. On Russian territory, trees were knocked down, cars were damaged, and street lighting was disrupted.