Europe hit by storms, 45 deaths reported

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Sunday, January 21, 2007

All trains from King's Cross railway station were cancelled.

Europe has been hit by fierce wind and storms, with gusts over 150 kilometers per hour reported from the UK to Southern Germany. Most major motorways are blocked/shut due to lorries being overturned by the wind.

Most European Airports, Train and Motorways have been affected. Amsterdam has been cut off, with planes grounded, and the train system from Amsterdam city halted.

Casualties and fatalities

According to the BBC, at least 45 people have been killed so far, with more deaths expected. Reports of numbers currently vary as the damage is assessed.

The casualties were distributed as follows:

• United Kingdom: 13 (8 in North West England)
• Germany: 13
• Ireland: 7 - lost at sea
• The Netherlands: 7
• Poland: 6
• Czech Republic: 4
• Belgium: 2
• France: 2
• Austria: 1

Western Europe

United Kingdom

The UK saw a total of eleven casualties, most of them in England. All incidents took place on January 18.

• The first casualty of the storm was the chief of Birmingham International Airport who was killed around 05:45 GMT when his car windscreen was smashed by a falling branch in Shropshire.
• In the London district of Kentish Town, a two-year-old boy died in hospital after receiving severe head injuries. These were caused by a wall collapsing onto the boy whilst he was walking with his childminder in the afternoon of January 18.
• A female lorry driver was killed on the A269 in Yorkshire when her vehicle overturned and was blown into a canal.
• A male lorry driver, who was a German national, was killed on the A55 in Chester in a similar incident.
• The front-seat male passenger of a car on the A329 was killed when a branch hit the car near Streatley, Berkshire, the driver was injured.
• A man was blown into metal shutters at an industrial estate in Manchester and died.
• In Byley, Cheshire, a man was hit by a tree whilst working on a construction site.
• An elderly man was killed at Humberside by a collapsing shed.
• A woman in Stockport was killed when a wall she tried to shelter behind collapsed onto her.
• In Lancashire, a man was hit by a falling canopy at a petrol station whilst refuelling and later died in hospital.
• In Woofferton, Shropshire, a lorry driver collided with another vehicle and died on the scene.

Germany

Germany was the country most severely hit by the storm, with 13 casualties as of January 21, 2007. Most deaths occurred on the 18th and 19th of January, though some victims were only injured at first and later died in hospital.

• In the Munich bourough Milbertshofen, an 18-month old child was severely injured by a patio door that had broken out of its hinges. The child later died in hospital.
• Near Kirrlach in the state of Baden-Württemberg, a motorist tried to avoid a tree that had fallen onto the road and crashed into an oncoming vehicle. He was pronounced dead on the scene.
• A 73-year old man was crushed by a barn door in Gersthofen in the district of Augsburg.
• A fireman was killed in Tönisvorst in North Rhine-Westphalia whilst performing storm cleanup work.
• A 36-year motorist was killed in Hildesheim by a fallen tree.
• A motorcycle driver slid under a tree in Essen, dying in hospital on January 21.
• On the B 55 near Lippstadt, a 23-year woman was killed when her car was hit by a falling birch tree.
• A man was killed when the gable of a nearby building collapsed in Groß Rodensleben in the state of Saxony-Anhalt.
• In Strausberg in Brandenburg, a 25-year man crashed into a fallen tree with his car.
• Near Finnentrop, a man died after not noticing a tree that had fallen onto the road and crashing into it.

The Netherlands

Seven people in the Netherlands were killed as a result of the weather. Two people died when a falling tree hit their car between Arnhem and Ede. A man near Oosterhout was killed in a collision with a truck. A motorcyclist died near Leersum after a collision with a tree, as well as a 17-year old boy on a moped in Sint Oedenrode. An 11-year old boy in Riel was blown in front of a car, which drove over him. The boy died on the scene. A 59-year old man in Staphorst was blown off of the roof of his barn, as he was repairing the damage caused by the storm. Six people were injured when a crane fell through the roof of a Utrecht University building. The National Crisis Centre has advised people to stay indoors, the first time such a warning has been issued.

France

In France, a driving instructor in Roubaix was killed when an electricity pole fell on top of her car. The student was severely injured. A 30-year old man died near Abbeville, when a swerving truck crashed into his car. A woman in Lille is missing after the roof of a store collapsed. There was significant damage to the cathedral at Saint-Omer.

Belgium

Two people in Belgium fell victim to the storm; a 16-year old girl in Halle died when a wall she was standing by collapsed and a man died in the province of Liège after a tree fell on top of his car.

Central and Eastern Europe

Twisted traffic light in the Danube area in Upper Austria.

In Poland, a crane operator was killed in Katowice when a 25-metre-high (82ft) crane broke in half. By January 19 a total of 6 casualties and 19 people wounded have been reported, nearly 800 thousand households lack electricity due to the damage done by the storm, about 500 were damaged.

In the Czech Republic, a fireman died in Slunečná (Liberec Region) when the wind threw a tree trunk on him while he was clearing the road with his colleagues. Two young men died in Vestec near Prague when a tree fell on their car.

Sources

• "In full:Weather-related deaths". BBC, January 21, 2007
• "Sturmtief "Kyrill" forderte Dutzende Todesopfer". Die Welt, January 21, 2007
• "Orkan: Zwei Todesopfer in NRW". Westdeutscher Rundfunk, January 21, 2007
• "Wichury w Polsce - pierwsza ofiara". onet.pl, January 21, 2007
• "Poland battered by deadly storm". BBC, January 19, 2007
• "Two-year-old storm victim named". BBC, January 19, 2007
• James Sturcke "42 killed as storms sweep Europe". The Guardian, January 19, 2007
• "Sześć ofiar śmiertelnych huraganu w Polsce, wiatr już słabnie". gazeta.pl, January 19, 2007
• "Airport boss dies in heavy storms". BBC, January 18, 2007
• "Orkantief "Kyrill": Bahn stellt Fernverkehr in Deutschland ein". SPIEGEL, January 18, 2007
• "Huge storm causes havoc, public told to stay indoors". expatica.com, January 18, 2007
• "La tempête a fait au moins 44 morts en Europe, dont trois en France". Le Monde, January 18, 2007
• "Twee doden door de zware storm". VRT Nieuws, January 18, 2007
• "Orkán Kyrill má v ČR už tři oběti". novinky.cz, January 18, 2007
  

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