Storms in Europe kill 46, disrupt travel

[mifune]

By DAVID RISING, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 12 minutes ago

BERLIN - Europeans labored Friday to restore services across the continent after hurricane-force winds toppled trees, brought down power lines and damaged buildings, killing at least 46 people and disrupting travel for tens of thousands.
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Berlin's new main train station was shut down after a two-ton girder fell from the side of the glass facade onto an outdoor staircase. The station was evacuated after the beam plummeted 130 feet Thursday night, but there were no injuries.

"I can see maybe the glass falling, but not the steel," said Thomas Mueller, an electrician who had stopped by the downtown station to survey the damage. "They just built this thing eight months ago."

Virtually the entire German national railway system shut down during the storm, with trees over many tracks and overhead power lines down, and services were being restored gradually Friday.

"We've never had such a situation in Germany," Deutsche Bahn CEO Hartmut Mehdorn said.

Off the coast of France, a coast guard tug was called upon to tow a damaged British container ship containing explosives to safety, a day after its crew of 26 was rescued from the stormy seas.

More than 1 million homes had no electricity in the Czech Republic, which was hit by winds of up to 112 mph, another 1 million households in Germany suffered power losses, while tens of thousands in Poland and Austria also were hit with outages.

The flow of Russian oil through a Ukrainian pipeline to other parts of Europe was restored Friday after a temporary shutdown caused when the storm knocked out power to a pumping station. The interruption occurred Thursday night on a section of the Druzhba, or Friendship, pipeline from the city of Brody in western Ukraine to Slovakia and Hungary, but Oleksandr Dikusarov, a spokesman for the Ukrtransnafta pipeline company, said the flow of oil was fully restored Friday afternoon.

The storm led to the deaths of at least three people in the Czech Republic, 12 in Germany, 14 in Britain, six in the Netherlands, three in France, two in Belgium and six in Poland.

It was the highest death toll from a storm in Europe since 1999, when gales downed trees and driving snow brought on avalanches, killing more than 120 in three days.

Climate researchers had been predicting stormy weather this year for parts of Europe, saying that unusually high temperatures in the North Atlantic, around 1 to 2 degrees above normal — would allow winds to accumulate more moisture and surge in energy.

"In times of rapid climactic change, extreme events arise more frequently," said Peter Werner of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Research.

Europe has been experiencing an extremely warm winter and has already been hit by several wind storms.

Most of the people killed in the storm were motorists, but in Germany they also included two firefighters — one hit by a falling tree and the other dying of a heart attack — and an 18-month old infant in Munich hit by a terrace door that was ripped from its hinges.

In London, a toddler was killed when a brick wall was knocked over by the wind and collapsed on him.

Frankfurt Airport reported that flights were again leaving regularly Friday after some morning delays and 200 cancellations Thursday.

National carrier Lufthansa canceled 331 flights across Germany on Thursday, affecting nearly 19,000 passengers, but intercontinental flights were largely on time again Friday, spokesman Thomas Jachnow said.

British Airways canceled 34 incoming flights to London's Heathrow and Gatwick airports and the two main London-to-Scotland rail routes ran reduced services.

Eurostar was running full service again, after one early Paris-to-London train was canceled. Meanwhile, London Bridge station was reopened after being closed after part of a roof collapsed.

British train companies warned of delays through the day as repairs were carried out.

Thousands of Dutch commuters were stranded overnight when the service was halted on all trains because of obstructions to the tracks and downed power cables.

By early Friday, most Dutch trains were running again after engineers worked through the night to clear debris and repair power lines, the railway said.

German subways, trams and buses were largely back in service, but only a few long-distance trains were running.

"Bringing the service back is like a puzzle — it goes bit by bit and we're now at the first pieces," railway spokesman Martin Walden said.

The German Weather Service said the storm was the strongest to hit the country since 1999. The highest winds were felt in the southern state of Bavaria, where gusts of up to 126 mph were recorded.

More signs of the North Atlantic Current breaking down?

___

 

[Laura]

Starting to look like "The Day After Tomorrow" is gonna be next week!

 

[Jacques]

Starting to look like "The Day After Tomorrow" is gonna be next week!

Pierre de Chatillon in his french book "Bouleversements climatiques" forecast for the mid of january to the mid of february, an increase in earthquake and in hurricane and by the end of the year up to 2008, a lot of bad weather with very powerful wind that we have never experienced yet. According to him, the alignment of the planets are close to the same one that during the time of Atlantis.

 

[Nienna]

Starting to look like "The Day After Tomorrow" is gonna be next week!

Yeah, it's getting spookier by the minute.....everywhere.

 

[Alana]

I had a similar thought today Laura.

How are the people of the forum doing, those from counties hit by the storms in Europe? I wonder if anyone has internet connection to let us know how is the situation where they are.

These storms were the "opportunity" for local channels to present scientists talking about how the weather changes are going to be dramatic, and affect the lives of every person on the planet. They even had the Hawkings' speech regarding weather posing greater threat to humanity than nuclear conflict at this moment (also posted under fire and ice signs editorial), and the clock countdown at 11:55 (12 being the end of the world). It was the first time that cyprus media paid attention on this subject. Mostly it was the pop global warming thing they were repeating, but i did hear a mention from one station saying that much colder temperatures would follow that.

 

[Rich]

On Austrailia's satallite channel broadcasting across Asia. (mainstream with neocon news) This wednesday night they are showing the following documentary (description from their website below).

Global warming - Bush's climate of fear

Has the Bush administration covered up the findings of global warming scientists? A US government whistleblower tells how scientific reports about global warming have been systematically changed and suppressed.

Some of America*s leading climate scientists claim that they have been censored and gagged by the administration. One of them believes the publication of his report, which catalogues the unprecedented rate of ice melt in the Arctic, was delayed as Americans prepared to vote in 2004. The scientists claim that when Bush came to power in 2000 his administration selected advice which argued that global warming was not a result of human activities and that the phenomenon could be natural.

But one of the people who suggested the president adopt that position explains how he has changed his point of view. 'I think most people would conclude that there is global warming taking place and that the behaviour of humans is affecting the climate. I am not the administration. What they want to do is their business. it has nothing to do with what I believe.'

 

[vinny]

here in the UK, there seems to be quite a big propaganda push at the moment, all concentrated on being "Carbon Neutral". It is all about businesses offsetting their carbon-emissions (from manufacturing polution or air-travel or what the hell ever) by investing in environmentally friendly schemes, planting forests etc. A lot of fuss has been made about the various record temperatures over 2006, and the prospect of a rising sea level. In fact the BBC has just had a series of broadcasts, live from Antarctica over the last week (only caught the last one) highlighting the global-warming issue.

Not a whisper about the issue that most of the harmful polution are the OTHER chemicals that are released into the atmosphere, you know, all the various carcinogens, heavy metals, chemical pesticides etc, that are making things increasingly toxic.

AND, also not a whisper about the other issues, that it is not just the earth that is experiencing global warming. well, obviously not. and of course, nothing about glacial rebound, or the satellite mission being launched to accurately measure the increase in ice thickness at the poles, or any of the fun stuff like that.

So, it seems that there is a definite effort going on at the moment, in vectoring peoples 'reality' about these things in a certain direction.

 

[Laura]

It seems to be all about the masses of people having to give up, sacrifice, and suffer and nothing about the big corporations that are doing most of the polluting and adding evil stuff to the atmosphere. Also, we can't forget that SOME of the global warming issues ARE cyclical and not the result of human activities. When Bush took his stance that it was "normal," he (and possibly the scientists he was listening to) kind of left off the part about "it gets really hot and then it gets really cold very fast."

Boy, what a screwed up mess they have made of it!

 

[stardust]

How are the people of the forum doing, those from counties hit by the storms in Europe? I wonder if anyone has internet connection to let us know how is the situation where they are.

In France East, we are today nearly 15/17°C with storms alarms. In the beginning of next week, temperatures should fall down nearly -10°C, that is to say under the seasonal averages...
Some flowers which grow generally in the end of february/ beginning of march , are already there...
That is for "THE DAY BEFORE"!

The french meteo presenters seem to be less and less enthusiastic to do their job...and yours?

 

[Alana]

Boy, what a screwed up mess they have made of it!

When psychopaths are in control, those are the fruits they bear.

There are strong northern winds today in cyprus, accompanied by rain, for which we are very grateful. The possibility of drought again has everyone wishing for rain. Now we wish it doesn't get as bad as what we see on tv happens in parts of europe.