Northwest Europe struggles with floods and snow after latest Atlantic storm
03/01/2024 15:28
*
Parts of Europe hit by heavy rain or snow
*
Temperatures fall in northern Scandinavia
*
Flooding affects travel in some areas
By Pascal Rossignol
ARQUES, France, Jan 3 (Reuters) - Parts of northwestern
Europe struggled on Wednesday to cope with the impact of the
latest in a series of Atlantic storms which dumped rain or snow
on already saturated ground, while northern Scandinavia
experienced extreme cold.
In northern France, rescue crews helped evacuate residents
from inundated homes in the town of Arques in the Pas de Calais
department, a region that had flooded for the second time in two
months after heavy rainfall.
Another 20-40 millimetres (0.85-1.7 inches) of rain was
expected within hours, and a red alert indicated that the river
Aa was close to breaking its banks.
"The first time, you think it's had luck, but the second
time, it starts to hit your morale and your wallet," said Arques
resident Anthony Richevin as he was being evacuated. "You start
wondering about the future."
There are no large-scale evacuations planned in the region
for the time being, Van Cauter added.
A ferry travelling from Norway to Denmark with about 900
passengers aboard was unable to dock in Copenhagen because of
the storm and was waiting for the wind to drop although that may
not happen before Thursday morning, shipping company DFDS said.
In Norway, the southern town of Kristiansand said it had
closed its schools and cancelled all public buses following
heavy snowfall.
The same storm, labelled Henk on either side of the North
Sea, brought gales and heavy rain to parts of England and Wales
on Tuesday, causing power outages, disrupting train travel and
forcing the closure of major roads because of flooding.
Trees were blown onto roads and rail tracks, killing one
motorist in southwestern England.
A 59-year-old woman died in Belgium's East Flanders province
on Tuesday after being hit by a blown-away fence during a period
of heavy rainfall in the country, local governor Carina Van
Cauter said in a statement on Wednesday.
The Arctic village of Kvikkjokk recorded an overnight
temperature of -43.6 Celsius (-46.5 Fahrenheit), Sweden's
coldest for the month of January in 25 years, the Swedish Met
Office said.
In Lapland in northern Finland, a woman went missing in a
blizzard while out skiing on Tuesday and was later found dead in
an avalanche. A search was continuing on Wednesday for her
child, Finnish police said.
(Additional reporting, Johannes Birkebaek, Anna Ringstrom, Essi
Lehto and Rachel More; Writing by Dominique Vidalon and Kevin
Liffey; Editing by Timothy Heritage)
((mailto:dominique.vidalon@thomsonreuters.com; +33149495432;
Reuters Messaging:
rm://dominique.vidalon.reuters.com@reuters.net/))