Updated on
Summary
Violent storms battered Spain, France and Germany over the weekend, causing casualties and leaving more than a million people without electricity.Authorities in Germany reported that there had been deaths caused by the weather including one man who was killed when a tree fell on his car. The German Meteorological Centre warned people to stay clear of wooded areas as long as the storm continued. On no account should people be driving through forests, some streets have already been closed off anyway. So, whoever can, should stay at home, meteorologist Peter Hartmann told. While the storm is not comparable to Kyrill, a low pressure storm that caused widespread damage in Europe in 2007, it still caused travel chaos across south-western Germany. Frankfurt's central train station, one of Germany's largest transportation hubs, was closed after wind gusts reached speeds of 130km per hour. The storm was expected to weaken into Monday (March 01), but bring colder weather into the north of Germany. In Spain the storm has claimed at least three lives. Houses have been damaged, cars have been destroyed and roads have simply collapsed. Overnight in Bilbao, Spain fires erupted leaving some homes smoldering in the daylight. While France may have been the hardest hit country in Europe, at least two people were killed by the storm in Germany and one in Portugal.
