Storms Boelo and Austen: Power failures reach 150,000 homes in UK, France, and Germany
Back-to-back systems killed one man, injured several, and forced a major hospital to restrict services as winds hit 135 km/h.
By Allison Rojas ·
Storms Boelo and Austen left more than 150,000 homes without electricity in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany on Sunday. The systems struck the region within a 24-hour period, killing one man and disrupting travel and telecommunications networks across northern Europe.
Officials reported that 82,000 households in the United Kingdom remained in the dark on Sunday. France accounted for nearly 60,000 outages, while at least 10,000 homes in Germany lost power. In southwestern Scotland, a falling tree killed a 60-year-old man. Two women in central Scotland suffered injuries from another falling tree, according to the Press Association.
Wind speeds reached 135 km/h in the Argyll and Bute regions of western Scotland. The storms knocked down trees and power cables, blocking roads and rail lines in Scotland and northern England. In Brighton, Storm Austen blew away an unused pier on Friday. The Met Office warned that Boelo posed a danger to life from flying debris and crashing waves, urging residents to stay indoors.
Across the Channel, France experienced its first major storm of the autumn. Enedis, the French energy company, stated that 288,000 homes lost electricity at the peak of Austen on Saturday. By midday Sunday, 59,000 homes, primarily in Normandy and Brittany, still had no power. A marathon runner in northern France sustained light injuries after a tree fell on him during a race.
In Germany, Austen affected 10,000 homes near Freiburg-Breisgau on Sunday. The town's main hospital limited services to emergency cases due to the blackout, which also severed the mobile phone network. German police reported that two people were seriously injured on Saturday when scaffolding was blown away at a market in Nastatten.
The storms also impacted the Netherlands and Belgium. Four people were injured by falling trees in Brussels on Saturday. In the Netherlands, three crew members on a freight ship north of Schiermonnikoog were injured. Two were airlifted to a mainland hospital by the coastguard. Hundreds of flights were cancelled or diverted across northern Europe, including at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport.
Experts have linked the event to climate change, warning of increased frequency of extreme weather. The storms have caused widespread disruption in transport and energy infrastructure across the continent.
