(Stockholm) The storm Babett caused significant flooding and property damage in coastal towns in Denmark overnight from Friday to Saturday, and deprived up to 20,000 homes in Norway of electricity.
It hit the United Kingdom on Friday, causing the death of three people, including two in the north-east of Scotland which was particularly affected.
In Denmark, the storm triggered a sharp rise in water levels in towns in the south of the country, flooding the ground floors of homes without electricity for several hours.
Water levels rose more than two meters above normal in towns like Aabenraa, Haderslev, Sønderborg, Hesnæs, Fynshav, Fåborg and Assensson, levels which are normally only reached once every 100 years, according to the DMI weather service.
PHOTO INGRID RIIS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
A sailor tries to moor a boat as storm Babet blows through the port of Hesnaes, Denmark.
“We have to remove large quantities of water from cities, especially in southern Jutland,” said Martin Vendelbo of the Danish Emergency Management Agency at Ritzau.
In the fishing port of Rødvig (Zealand province), several fishing boats have run aground or are on the verge of sinking, according to photos from Danish media.
In Norway, at the start of the morning, up to 20,000 residents were without power in the south, but the situation is improving, according to the Norwegian news agency NTB. Roofs were torn off buildings, trees and masts fell in the strong winds.
Scotland continued to heal its wounds after the damage caused by Babett Friday.
On
“The night was quite calm and the number of incidents to be dealt with was low,” however, indicated the general manager of the council of Aberdeenshire (north-west of Scotland) Jim Savege on the BBC Breakfast program.
By the morning, almost all of the 33,000 homes without electricity in Scotland had been reconnected to the network, according to the company Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN).
Leeds Bradford Airport in the north of England, closed on Friday after a TUI plane went off the runway caused by strong winds, was due to reopen its doors on Saturday afternoon.
Interviewed on BBC One on Saturday morning, Labor MP Toby Perkins said around 400 homes in his constituency of Chesterfield in central England had been flooded and many people now have “no idea what the place where they will be able to live.