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High winds shut down Paris airports
Paris (AFP) Feb 10, 2009 Severe winds and rain lashed France and Britain on Tuesday, knocking out power to half a million homes and forcing the closure of Paris' two international airports for the first time in 34 years. Hurricane-force gusts of up to 140 kilometres (87 miles) per hour were recorded on France's west coast, as the storm barrelled in from the Atlantic before dawn, the second to lash the country in a fortnight. French emergency services were called out hundreds of times to clear fallen trees and debris from roads, but there were no initial reports of injuries. Bracing for winds of up to 100 kilometres per hour in the capital, the authorities pre-emptively shut down Paris' two main airports, Charles de Gaulle and Orly, cancelling more than 200 flights. National carrier Air France said it put up 3,000 travellers in hotel rooms near Charles de Gaulle, one of Europe's busiest airports, but airport officials said around 100 people spent the night in transit lounges. Flights started resuming at 10:00 am, Paris airport authorities said, with all scheduled long-haul Air France services to operate -- albeit with major delays to both incoming and outgoing flights. The storm left some 600,000 homes without electricity in west and central France, according to the grid operator ERDF, which said its teams were working to restore power lines as soon as possible. Forecasters lifted their severe weather warning for southwestern France on Tuesday morning, but the north of the country, from western Brittany to Alsace in the east, remained on alert with high winds expected until evening. Still reeling from a major storm that left 11 people dead on France's southwest Atlantic coast on January 24, French authorities had pulled out the stops to prepare for the latest tempest. School bus services were cancelled pre-emptively in several parts of France, and truck traffic was banned in several areas. The French navy put three rescue vessels on standby to sail to the aid of ships in difficulty in the mouth of the Channel, and sandbags were deployed on sea fronts exposed to flood risks. Ferries between Brittany and nearby islands were suspended, while Brittany Ferries postponed the inaugural sailing Tuesday of its service from Roscoff to Plymouth in southern Britain. Across the Channel, southern England was also battered by driving rain, fierce winds and snow, causing flooding, power cuts and problems on roads and smaller airports. Just a week after heavy snowfalls paralysed much of Britain, a snow storm stretching from south Wales into central England left up to 3,000 homes without electricity. In other areas, almost the monthly average rainfall for February fell in just 24 hours, forecasters said. Bristol airport in southwest England was closed overnight because of heavy snowfall, with eight outbound flights and several inbound flights cancelled or diverted to other airports. burs-ec/dc/jj Share This Article With Planet Earth
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Heavy rains alter Peru's famed Nazca Lines
Lima (AFP) Jan 20, 2009Heavy rains in recent days in Peru have affected the famed Nazca Lines, the two-millennia-old giant outlines that are one of the country's top tourist attractions, officials said Tuesday. |
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