Deadly Storm Babet unleashed extensive flooding and damage in Britain, Northern Germany and towns in Denmark and Norway.
Since Thursday, at least four people have died in the storm, named Babet by the UK Meteorological Office. Three people died in Scotland and England and a 33-year-old woman was killed in Baltic Sea island of Fehmarn (Germany) when a tree fell on her car.
Gale-force winds whipped up storm surges on the southern shores of the Baltic Sea, breaking through flood defenses in coastal areas in Denmark and northern Germany.
As the storm made landfall in Scandinavia, it triggered a sharp rise in water levels in towns in southern Denmark, flooding the first floor of homes which were left without power for several hours.
Water levels in several Danish towns exceeded their normal height by more than two metres (seven feet), levels normally only reached once every hundred years, according to Denmark’s DMI weather service.
“We are having to clear large quantities of water from the towns, especially in southern Jutland,” Martin Vendelbo of the Danish Emergency Management Agency told the Ritzau news agency.
In Flensburg, a German city just south of the border with Denmark, water levels rose more than 2 meters to the highest level recorded in a century, DPA (German press agency) said. Power was cut to flooded parts of the city for safety reasons.
In southern Norway, up to 20,000 residents were without power early Saturday after strong winds blew roofs off buildings and downed trees and power masts, but the Norwegian news agency NTB said the situation was improving.
The storm continued to wreak havoc in the UK, with London’s King’s Cross station forced to close on Saturday afternoon to prevent passengers massing on platforms after the cancellation or delay of numerous trains.
Leeds Bradford airport in northern England, which was closed on Friday after a passenger plane skidded off the runway in strong winds, reopened late Saturday morning.
In Scotland, as much as 4 inches (100 mm) of rain was forecast Saturday, and several towns remained under a red weather alert, the highest level, which means there is a danger to life.
In the worst-hit town of Brechin (Scotland), residents of more than 300 homes were told to leave before the River South Esk breached its banks Friday, surging almost 4 meters (13 feet) above its usual level and sending water pouring into the streets.
Ferry lines and railway service were temporarily suspended in affected areas in Germany, Denmark and southern Sweden. Copenhagen’s airport canceled 142 flights due to the storm on Friday but resumed operations on Saturday morning.
