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Arctic storms bring chaos to Europe@ (adds further deaths, disruption)
Source: Reuters
Exerpt - Rest of article follows
In Switzerland, the Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research warned of
serious danger of further avalanches in areas affected by fresh snow. Three
men were killed in avalanches in Switzerland on Monday.
LONDON, The Reuters World Service via Individual Inc. : Freak snowstorms,
gales and sub-zero temperatures swept Europe from Sweden to Spain on
Tuesday, wreaking havoc with transport and claiming lives.
As many usually temperate countries battled Arctic conditions, weather
forecasters said more heavy snows were in store across much of the
continent.
Gales battered Britain overnight, leaving one man dead when his motorcycle
crashed into a felled tree, coastal towns suffering from flooding and 14,000
homes without electricity.
Blizzards lashed the east and south and whipped up rough seas which breached
coastal defences, forcing 30 people to be evacuated from one village in
Norfolk, eastern England.
The Channel Tunnel rail link between France and Britain was closed for seven
hours because melting snow disrupted signalling equipment, a spokesman for
the Eurotunnel company said. Heavy seas prevented cross-Channel ferries from
docking.
Many roads were blocked by snowdrifts, some up to six feet (two metres)
deep, as temperatures plummeted to minus 14 Celsius (7 degrees Fahrenheit)
in some parts.
Snow and ice enveloped much of France, disrupting flights at Charles de
Gaulle and Orly airports near Paris. Traffic was held up in the ports of
Dunkirk and Dieppe and on roads, and three people died in a collision in the
Oise region north of Paris.
A young woman was found frozen to death near Lille in north France, the
first fatality directly blamed on the cold snap.
Heavy snow in the northern half of Spain blocked roads and mountain passes
and cut off isolated villages. The main highway from Madrid to France was
shut near Alava while snowploughs laboured to clear it.
Snow and ice paralysed parts of northern Germany, with Schleswig-Holstein
state bearing the brunt of overnight storms.
In Denmark local authorities gave up trying to keep many roads open as
blizzards continued. In southern Jutland, near the border with Germany,
rescue services used a military half-track to get a woman in childbirth to
hospital along snowbound roads.
Officials in Ukraine said hundreds of people, mostly homeless men, have
frozen to death in parks, doorways and underground passages in the last few
months in one of the coldest winters in decades.
The Ukraine national weather centre said temperatures plunged to minus 25
Celsius (minus 13F) this winter. Tuesday's temperature was about freezing
and more snow was likely.
In the usually temperate Crimean peninsula, once a year-round vacation haven
for the Soviet elite, at least 89 people have died from the cold this
winter.
``We aren't digging common graves yet, but after really cold nights we've
buried up to seven people. Most are homeless with no identification,'' said
Igor Morozov of Crimea's crime bureau.
Southern Sweden, which usually escapes the worst wintry weather, was
paralysed by blizzards on Monday and Tuesday. Heavy snowfalls closed some
schools as well as the main highway running through the south after hundreds
of cars skidded.
The road was cleared after emergency vehicles and ploughs worked through the
night in drifting snow.
Ships were badly affected in many areas of Europe. In Norway, ferry traffic
between Denmark and the southern port of Fredrikshavn was disrupted by
snowstorms on Monday night, and two Stena Line ferries were forced to seek
refuge in the Swedish port of Gothenburg to weather out the high winds.
Gales also buffeted the oil tanker Sea Empress, which ran aground on
Thursday off South Wales, hampering attempts to prevent further heavy oil
spills that are threatening some of the nation's most treasured wildlife.