Powerful winds and torrential rain swept southern France on Wednesday Dec 25,2013 grounding flights and cutting off power to tens of thousands of homes
People watch giant waves in Nice, southeastern France
Flooding in the Brittany town of Morlaix on Tuesday Dec 24,2013
About 50,000 homes across the country were without electricity by 1730 GMT on Christmas Day due to ruptured power lines and widespread flooding in the northwestern Brittany region, said France's ERDF power distributor.
Repair work by some 2,000 technicians throughout the day restored power to some 70,000 homes.
The international airport at Nice remained shut, with all but a few incoming and outgoing flights cancelled until at least 2200 GMT due to poor visibility and conditions on the runway, interim director Valerie Wack said.
"Only16 planes were able to take off today," she said. "The airlines are deciding case-by-case whether it's possible to take off."
Meteo France, the national weather office, maintained an "Orange" alert level for weather-related danger - its second-highest - in Brittany and a small part of southeastern France but declared other regions mostly calm
The storm had subsided in the north of France on Wednesday but continued to batter southeastern France and the Mediterranean coastline, though winds were less powerful.
However, Meteo France, the national weather office warned a new storm front could hit northern France and Britain on Friday, with hurricane-force winds that are expected to sweep over Ireland, northern Britain and the western coast of Norway.
No comments:
Post a Comment