Storm Ciarán live: deaths reported across Europe while UK faces major disruption | World news
Six people killed, schools closed and hundreds of flights cancelled
Six people have been killed as Storm Ciarán brought chaos to western Europe today, closing schools, shutting down train services and cancelling hundreds of flights, reports Reuters.
A truck driver was killed after a tree fell on him in France and a second death was reported in Le Havre.
Falling trees killed a woman in Madrid and another woman in the Netherlands, while two people – a five-year-old and a 64-year-old from Germany – died in Ghent by falling branches.
In France, 1.2m households were left without electricity and 15 people, including seven firefighters, were injured.
Residents in Finistère, Brittany, were urged to stay at home to avoid winds of 207km/h (129mph) and reports of 20-metre (66ft) waves off the coast.
In Britain, the Channel Islands were among the worst affected areas, with reports of windows blown in and a roof ripped off.
KLM, the Dutch airline, cancelled hundreds of flights to and from Amsterdam and international trains from the Dutch capital to Paris were cancelled. Shipping lanes in the south-west of the Netherlands were closed.
The airport operator Aena said 42 flights in Spain, where waves of 9 metres were expected, were cancelled. La Pinilla, a ski resort north of Madrid, and Estaca de Bares in Galicia registered wind velocities of more than 150km/h.
Key events
Some of the most vivid photos showing the impact of the storm across the British Isles.
Courtesy of a reader, a close call for a car on Jubilee Road in Totnes, Devon, and a view of the fallen tree from their kitchen.
Jon Henley
At least seven people have been killed and dozens injured as Storm Ciarán battered north-west Europe with torrential rain and winds of up to 200km/h (124mph), damaging homes and forcing schools to close and airlines and train companies to halt services.
A truck driver was killed by a falling tree in the Aisne département of northern France, authorities said on Thursday, while more than 1.2 million people lost their electricity supply, including about half the population of Brittany.
A 70-year-old man died in Le Havre after falling off his balcony in an accident police described as linked to Storm Ciarán’s record-breaking winds, while in Spain a woman was killed when a tree fell on her in central Madrid and three people were injured.
Two people died in central Ghent, Belgium, after being hit by falling branches from trees. One of the victims was five years old, while the other one was a 64-year-old German woman visiting Belgium. A third was seriously injured in the port city of Antwerp when a high wall gave way in record winds, authorities said.
In the Netherlands a person was crushed to death by a tree in Venray in the southern province of Limburg, local media said. At least 10 other people were injured by flying debris around the country, at least three seriously.
The German fire service also said on Thursday that a 46-year-old woman from Bavaria who was on a family holiday with her husband and two children had been killed by a falling tree while out hiking near Rammelsberg in the Harz mountains.
Schemes in Ireland to support businesses whose premises have been flooded in recent weeks have been extended to retailers and community groups affected by Storm Ciarán.
Two schemes have been approved for small businesses, sports clubs and community and voluntary organisations unable to secure flood insurance and affected by extreme weather events, PA reports.
Ministers made the decision at a cabinet meeting today to extend the two schemes to businesses based in counties Louth and Wexford that have been hit by flooding since 24 October.
One scheme offers an initial €5,000 (£4,400) payment and total support of up to €20,000 based on the scale of the damage. A second scheme, set up in response to unprecedented flooding in Midleton, County Cork, offers an initial payment of €10,000 to businesses and up to €100,000 euro in total after auditing and assessment.
The enterprise minister, Simon Coveney, said the schemes would provide “urgent assistance to businesses that were unable, through no fault of their own, to get insurance to help with the costs of repairing the damage caused by flooding”.
As with similar weather events in the past, the Irish Red Cross will administer and make payments under the scheme on behalf of my department.
Six people killed, schools closed and hundreds of flights cancelled
Six people have been killed as Storm Ciarán brought chaos to western Europe today, closing schools, shutting down train services and cancelling hundreds of flights, reports Reuters.
A truck driver was killed after a tree fell on him in France and a second death was reported in Le Havre.
Falling trees killed a woman in Madrid and another woman in the Netherlands, while two people – a five-year-old and a 64-year-old from Germany – died in Ghent by falling branches.
In France, 1.2m households were left without electricity and 15 people, including seven firefighters, were injured.
Residents in Finistère, Brittany, were urged to stay at home to avoid winds of 207km/h (129mph) and reports of 20-metre (66ft) waves off the coast.
In Britain, the Channel Islands were among the worst affected areas, with reports of windows blown in and a roof ripped off.
KLM, the Dutch airline, cancelled hundreds of flights to and from Amsterdam and international trains from the Dutch capital to Paris were cancelled. Shipping lanes in the south-west of the Netherlands were closed.
The airport operator Aena said 42 flights in Spain, where waves of 9 metres were expected, were cancelled. La Pinilla, a ski resort north of Madrid, and Estaca de Bares in Galicia registered wind velocities of more than 150km/h.
A few images from today as Storm Ciarán causes destruction across Europe:
Storm Ciarán has set a new record for the lowest mean sea level pressure recorded in England and Wales in November, reports the UK’s Met Office.
The record was set in Plymouth in England, where a value of 953.3 hPa (mb) was measured, and St Athan in Wales, with 958.5 hPa (mb).
The previous records were 959.7 hPa (mb) in England (set in 1916) and 962.7 hPa (mb) in Wales (set in 2010).
⚠️ #StormCiarán has set a new record for the lowest mean sea level pressure recorded in England and Wales in November, with a value of 953.3 hPa (mb) in Plymouth and 958.5 hPa (mb) in St Athan
◾ The previous record in England was 959.7 hPa (mb), set in 1916
◾ The previous… pic.twitter.com/zruckdYR2K
— Met Office (@metoffice) November 2, 2023
Landowners in England have claimed that farmers and rural communities are “unfairly shouldering the burden” of flooding, blaming “years of poor management” by the Environment Agency.
The Country Land and Business Association (CLA) called on the government to do more to support farmers and landowners, claiming their fields are being sacrificed to save houses and villages downstream, reports the PA news agency.
Tim Bamford, the body’s regional director, said:
Flooding can have a massive impact on farming and the countryside, with crops damaged and rural communities often cut off.
Years of poor management of watercourses and flood defences by the Environment Agency, often caused by lack of resources, mean farmers are still unfairly shouldering the burden of flooding devastation.
Landowners don’t receive compensation when the Environment Agency effectively floods their fields to protect downstream houses and villages, despite the harm to their crops and livelihoods.
And when farmers do attempt to implement flood prevention techniques, they face lengthy authorisation delays and costs, creating a lose-lose situation.
Farmers want to provide solutions to the climate crisis. But until the government steps in to tackle planning delays and offer full and proper compensation to those storing floodwater, farmers will continue paying the price for problems they didn’t create.
An Environment Agency spokesperson said:
We are acutely aware of the impacts flooding can have on farmers and the agriculture sector, and our teams are working hard on the ground to help people recover from Storm Babet and the current impacts being felt by Storm Ciarán.
Between April 2021 and April 2023 we have better protected around 148,000 hectares of agricultural land through our flooding investment programme.
Working with farmers and landowners is also an important part of our flood and coastal erosion risk management strategy roadmap up to 2026, which is supported by a wide range of partners, including the NFU [the National Farmers’ Union].
French man dies after falling off balcony
A 70-year-old man died in Le Havre after falling off his balcony in an accident the authorities described as linked to Storm Ciarán’s winds, local media reported.
More pictures from France and the British Isles today.
Alan Evans
Rihab Khalid, the Isaac Newton Trust research fellow at the University of Cambridge, said today that it is “apparent that we are not yet prepared for the impacts of climate change.”
“Storm Ciarán hits the south coast of England with near record-breaking low pressure shortly after Storm Babet delivered the third wettest three-day period in England and Wales since records began in 1891. And it’s barely the beginning of November,” he said, noting that “all this follows the joint hottest September ever in the UK, in a year that will almost certainly be the hottest humans have ever experienced.”
Khalid added:
As records tumble, the increasing frequency and severity of extreme events is a stark reminder that the impacts of climate change are not a future probability, but a present threat affecting us in all parts of the world.
Climate action to tackle this is not only about reducing emissions but also about enhancing our capacity to weather the storms, figuratively and literally.
It is all too apparent that we are not yet prepared for the impacts of climate change. This is why building resilience and community-led adaptability must be at the forefront of our response. Slowing progress to net zero now will only mean more extreme weather and greater threats like this in the future.
Here’s the view from space.
🛰️ Take a look at the latest view from space
☁️ The large swirl of cloud associated with #StormCiarán can be seen just off the east coast of England
☀️ There plenty of sunshine across Northern Ireland and western Scotland though pic.twitter.com/98dxnES5kK
— Met Office (@metoffice) November 2, 2023
Five people killed during storm by falling trees
A total of five people – in France, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium – have lost their lives due to falling trees during Storm Ciarán.
One person killed in The Netherlands
One person died when a tree fell in Venray, the Dutch broadcaster NOS has reported, citing police in the province of Limburg.
In France, a high wind alert is still in place for Normandy and Hauts-de-France.
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