Powerful Storm Hits Europe, 4 Dead Amid Traffic Chaos

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A powerful storm pummeled Europe with high winds and snow Thursday, killing at least four people in three countries, grounding flights, halting trains, ripping roofs off buildings and flipping over trucks. Falling trees killed two 62-year-old men in the Netherlands, a woman south of the Belgian capital of Brussels and a 59-year-old man at a camping site in the German town of Emmerich, near the Dutch border. Police spokeswoman Jose Albers told Dutch national broadcaster NOS that authorities also were investigating whether the powerful gusts were to blame for the death of a 66-year-old man who fell through a plexiglass roof in the central town of Vuren. The national weather service recorded wind gusts of up to 140 kph (87 mph) in the southern port of Hook of Holland as the storm passed over. Amsterdam's Schiphol briefly halted flights for an hour in the morning. Flag carrier KLM already had scrapped more than 200 flights before the storm. Trains were halted across the nation. Social media in the Netherlands was flooded with images of people being blown from their bicycles, cargo containers falling off a ship and damage to buildings, including the roof peeling off an apartment block in the port city of Rotterdam. Water authorities in the low-lying nation closed an inflatable storm barrier east of Amsterdam to prevent flooding as the storm pushed up water levels. Traffic on Dutch roads was plunged into chaos, with the wind blowing over tractor trai...
Source: JEMS: Journal of Emergency Medical Services News - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: Major Incidents News Source Type: news