The remnants of Hurricane Kirk swept into western Europe on Wednesday, tearing up trees in Portugal and Spain before dumping heavy rain on France, killing at least one person.
A storm swell in the Mediterranean Sea near the port city of Sete in southern France overturned three boats, killing one amateur sailor and leaving another in hospital in critical condition, Herault department authorities said.
About 64,000 people in the south of France were also without power, network supplier Enedis told AFP, while several departments reported roads cut by flooding.
After a crisis response meeting in Paris, Energy and Ecological Transition Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher told journalists that the government was mobilizing “all state services” and urged citizens to exercise caution.
“These episodes will tend to repeat themselves. We live in a time when climate change is making itself felt in concrete ways in our daily lives,” she said.
Authorities have put the Seine-et-Marne department near Paris on red alert for flooding as rain swelled the Grand Morin River, a tributary of the Seine, which flows through the French capital.
Another 29 departments in the country were placed on orange alert as heavy rain and strong winds were expected.
There were 35,000 households that lost electricity in the worst-hit Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, while a number of other departments in the south-west and central-east of the country were also affected, Enedis said.
Weather forecasters had predicted the storm would dump a month’s worth of rain on part of the country, including Paris.
– Power outages in Portugal –
Portugal’s Civil Protection Authority reported more than 1,300 incidents from Tuesday to Wednesday, three-quarters of which related to fallen trees in the north of the country.
Porto, the main city in the north, was hardest hit, with 400 trees uprooted. Cars were also damaged and rail traffic was disrupted near Barcelos, also in the north.
The storm also knocked out power to more than 300,000 households, the country’s electricity supplier said.
Weather and civil protection officials, who had forecast winds of up to 120 kilometers per hour (75 mph) and heavy rain, put the coast on a yellow alert as waves could reach heights of up to seven meters (23 feet).
Spanish weather officials issued an orange warning for the north and northwest of the country, warning of winds of up to 140 kilometers per hour in the Asturias region.
Galicia, in the northwest, reported that some roads in urban areas were blocked by mudslides and fallen trees.
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