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Death Toll Mounts As More Storms Hit Europe

07:34 a.m. Dec 28, 1999 Eastern

By Catherine Bremer

PARIS (Reuters) - Fresh storms battered France, Spain and Switzerland overnight, killing at least 20 people and bringing the overall death toll to above 60, officials said Tuesday.

In France, which bore the brunt of the winds that hammered Europe over Christmas weekend, 3.5 million households were without electricity after fresh gales tore down power lines.

The storms drummed up huge waves off France's Atlantic coast and swept more oil spilled from a sunken tanker to shore. Some of the thick sludge landed on beaches which had just been cleaned.

``This is a drama which has come inside an even bigger drama -- this hurricane which hit our country,'' Prime Minister Lionel Jospin told reporters as he inspected oil-covered seabirds in the western town of Lorient. Overnight gales in southwest France with wind speeds of up to 112 miles per hour flattened electricity pylons, toppled lorries and sent trees crashing through roofs, heaping a new burden on emergency services repairing damage from Sunday's gale.

Fourteen people were reported killed and scores more injured during Monday's storm, most from trees falling on cars, and seven were still missing, France LCI television said. Around 40 were believed dead across northern France after Sunday morning's gale whose winds were pegged at close to 200 km per hour.

Monday's gusts left homes without electricity across many southern regions. Electricite de France, battling to get power restored given the bitterly cold weather, said it would be hard pushed to get all households reconnected before December 31.

``I must unfortunately say that we have around 3,400,000 homes with their electricity cut off, the bulk being in the center of France with 800,000 households,'' EDF's Environmental Director Jean-Pierre Bourdier told LCI television.

DEVASTATION WIDESPREAD

The violent storms had already caused deaths and devastation in Spain, Britain, Germany and Switzerland.

Geneva's Cointrin international airport was closed for 90 minutes Tuesday morning as winds battered aircraft on the tarmac, but there was no serious damage.

The Federal Snow and Avalanche Research Institute warned skiers of dangerous conditions after Alpine areas saw up to 40 cms of new snow. Some mountain passes were closed to traffic.

The death toll from Sunday's freak storm rose to 13 after a 58-year-old man died from injuries caused by a falling tree.

In Spain, six people died Monday in winds that raged up to 170 kph (105 mph) along the northern coast. Two workmen died and another was seriously injured in Asturias when a wall collapsed.

In Bilbao, gales toppled a 1.5 ton crane, crushing a man and a 17-year-old woman. A workman's hut, thrown into the air, struck and killed another man in the Basque port.

The sixth Spanish victim was a 45-year-old woman, who died of hypothermia after being thrown overboard from a small boat in the bay of Santander, a local government official said.

STORMS EXACERBATE OIL SLICK DAMAGE In western France, oil spilled from the tanker Erika last week was estimated to span some 250 miles of coast in Brittany and Vendee, areas dependent on fishing and tourism.

TotalFina, which chartered the Erika and has been made a scapegoat by the press, continued to suffer on the Paris bourse, extending Monday's losses by 1.38 percent at 0953 GMT.

Elsewhere, scores of roads were blocked by fallen trees and Air France cancelled a tenth of its domestic flights.

Rail services suffered more disruption, with thousands of passengers stranded, though international services ran normally.

Jospin cut short a trip to Egypt to visit affected areas around Paris, where Sunday's gusts toppled gargoyles and spires from the historic Notre Dame cathedral and cut down tens of thousands of trees in parks around the Versailles chateau.

Weather forecasters said while the Mediterranean area was still suffering high winds, the worst of the storm had passed. ''Today should be calmer. The worst is over and we should be okay until the end of the year,'' a Meteo France spokesman said.

Gales also lashed central and southern Italy Tuesday.

Firemen in Umbria, central Italy, received dozens of calls after high winds knocked down trees and damaged some tin-roof dwellings. Police in the southern Calabria region issued a warning to drivers after winds scattered building materials.

Emergency services in Belgium were on standby after heavy rain caused flooding in northern and central regions. The River Dender broke its banks Monday around 50 km west of Brussels, flooding some 150 houses. Around 30 families were evacuated.

URL: http://infoseek.go.com/Content?col=NX&lk=noframes&arn=a0651LBY535reulb-19991228&CAT=NEWS&kt=A&ak=news1486

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-- snooze button (alarmclock_2000@yahoo.com), December 28, 1999

Answers

Sounds like a Y2K problem.

-- (gropchek@rindig.net), December 28, 1999.

Well it was my biggest fear to see storms roll through Canada during the rollover. But as it stands now we northern types are enjoying a very mild winter.

Not so the European folks. Sounds like a bummer alright.

-- Brian (imager@home.com), December 28, 1999.