Europe counts cost of weekend storms

Fierce storms left more than 250,000 homes and businesses across northern Europe without power today as crews from Russia to Ireland began cleaning up the wreckage.

At least 16 people died in the weekend storms.

The storms also hampered Norway’s oil production for a fourth day by delaying repairs at three offshore fields that account for about 1% of the nation’s output.

In southern Sweden, seven people were killed in the storm, including four motorists.

In Denmark, four people were killed by flying debris or falling trees, police said. Residents in western Denmark were piling sandbags to keep floodwaters out of their homes.

Three people were killed in north-west England on Saturday.

In the north German state of Schleswig-Holstein, high winds forced the shutdown of train and ferry links, and motorway bridges. Two 20-year-old men whose kayak capsized on a lake near Landwedel were missing and presumed dead.

“There’s no more hope for them,” police spokesman Dirk Voss said.

In Ireland, several rivers burst their banks and flooded roads. About 150,000 homes lost electricity over the weekend, but most had power restored by Monday.

In Sweden, power was slowly being restored to 219,000 homes. In Denmark, 12,500 homes were dark in the east.

Across the Baltic Sea, nearly 40% of Latvia and thousands more in neighbouring Estonia and Lithuania were still without power or heat Monday.

The weekend storm, which meteorologists say was among the worst to hit the region in 40 years, brought hurricane-strength winds of 90 mph that ripped roofs from homes and wrought widespread property damage along the coast. Insurers put preliminary damage estimates at tens of millions of pounds.