Storm Ciara has been named one of northern Europe’s most violent storms in years, with at least five people dead, roads flooded and many areas left without power.
On Monday, Britain’s newspapers and the Met Office (British national weather service) described Ciara as “the storm of the century,” due to the scale of destruction it has caused.
“While Storm Ciara is clearing away, that doesn’t mean we’re entering a quieter period of weather," Alex Burkill, the Met Office meteorologist, said. “Blizzards aren’t out of the question.”
The death toll continues to rise across northern Europe with one man dead and another missing after their boat capsized in southern Sweden, and a mother and young daughter killed in southern Poland from storm-force winds that tore away roofs. Falling trees from high winds have also resulted in deaths and injuries in Britain, Slovenia and Germany.
The British towns of Hebden Bridge and Mytholmroyd were said to be the worst hit areas of Storm Ciara, with floods submerging cars and tens of thousands of homes left without power.
Northern Austria saw 35,000 households without power. On Monday, 90,000 homes in France were without power.
Flooding also disrupted traffic in Luxembourg and Belgium, with the storm grounding hundreds of flights across Germany and the Netherlands. Rail and ferry services were also affected in Germany, Britain and France.
The only upside seen from Ciara was for passengers aboard the British Airways flight traveling from London to New York. Thanks to the storm, the sub-sonic flight completed its journey in a record time of 4 hours 56 minutes according to flight-tracking website Flightradar24.
