8 die, 300,000 homes without power as storm lashes Europe

At least eight people died and more than 300,000 homes were left without power on Monday as a fierce storm swept across northern Europe.

Four people were killed in Britain, two in Germany, one in The Netherlands and another in France as heavy rain and high winds battered the region overnight and into the morning.

The rough conditions at sea also forced rescuers to abandon the search for a 14-year-old boy who disappeared while playing in the surf on a southern English beach on Sunday.

British Prime Minister David Cameron described the loss of life as "hugely regrettable".

Winds reached 99 miles (159km) per hour on the Isle of Wight off the southern English coast, according to Britain's Met Office national weather centre.

Heavy rain and winds of 80 mph elsewhere brought down thousands of trees and caused the mass cancellation of train services across southern England and The Netherlands, as well as in parts of Germany.

In Britain, a 17-year-old girl died after a tree fell onto the parked caravan where she was sleeping, while a man in his fifties died when a tree fell on his car, police said.

The bodies of a man and a woman were later found in the rubble of three houses in London that collapsed in an explosion thought to have been caused after a gas pipe was ruptured in the storm.

A woman in Amsterdam was killed by a falling tree as she walked along a canal, while a woman in her fifties was presumed dead after being swept away by waves in the western French region of Brittany, authorities in those countries said.

And in western Germany, two people were killed when a tree fell on their car.

Some 270,000 homes lost power across Britain, with a further 75,000 homes affected in northern France, according to industry organisations. Thousands were later re-connected.

The electricity also went down at a nuclear power station in southeast England. Dungeness B station automatically closed down both its reactors, leaving its diesel generators to provide power for essential safety systems.

Even Buckingham Palace in London was affected, although Queen Elizabeth II was not staying there at the time.

A spokeswoman said several slates fell off the roof and two of the windows were cracked.

Commuters sit it out

Train operators across southern England had on Sunday cancelled services for the next morning in anticipation of bad weather, following warnings by forecasters and the media.

Many commuters delayed their journeys until the storm passed mid-morning, leaving central London stations eerily quiet during what normally would have been the rush hour.

Trading on the FTSE 100 started slowly as many traders stayed at home, according to one analyst.
And Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg had to cancel his monthly press conference because the government building where he works was closed after a crane fell on the roof.

London's Heathrow airport cancelled 130 flights, about 10 percent, while delays were reported on the Eurostar cross-Channel train service due to speed restrictions.

"Clearly this has been a difficult night for many Londoners, and continues to be an incredibly trying morning," said London Mayor Boris Johnson.

More than 450 people were stranded on two ferries outside the port of Dover after it closed for more than two hours, finally docking shortly after 9:00 am (0900 GMT).

The Met Office said 50 millimetres (almost two inches) of rain fell in some areas of Britain overnight, while the Environment Agency issued around 130 flood alerts.

The storm was named Christian in France and dubbed St Jude by the British media, after the patron saint of lost causes whose feast day is on Monday.

It had been predicted to be the worst for a decade but the devastation was not as bad as many feared, and fell far short of that caused by the "Great Storm" of October 1987.

During that storm, 22 people died in Britain and France and the damage was estimated at £1 billion ($1.6 billion or 1.2 billion euros at current exchange rates).

UAE flights

Emirates and Etihad Airways have posted no delays or cancellations in wake of the St Jude storm that appears to have already crippled part of the UK’s transportation system.

Airlines operating to and from Heathrow, the world’s busiest airport, have been instructed to reduce schedules between five and 20 per cent between 6am and 10.30pm, GMT.

Nearly 60 flights in total have been cancelled across UK airports, with Edinburgh Airport, confirming that KLM had cancelled flights to Amsterdam and two British Airways flights to Heathrow; BA has cancelled 21 short-haul flights because of the severe weather.

Ireland’s Aer Lingus and EasyJet have also been affected, with the carriers warning travellers more disruptions could be on the cards.

Transport hit

Britain faced travel chaos on Monday and 30,000 homes were without electricity in northwestern France as a massive storm swept in from the Atlantic Ocean.

Britain's national weather centre the Met Office warned of falling trees, damage to buildings and disruption to power supplies and transport as the storm hit England's southwest coast late Sunday.

Click to see gallery of Britain's worst storm: A nation braces

London’s Heathrow tweeted: “Forecast high winds are likely to cause disruption to flights inc cancellations. Pls check flight status w/ airlines”.

Between 20 and 40mm (0.8 to 1.6 inches) of rain were predicted to fall within six to nine hours as the storm tracked eastwards across Britain, with a chance of localised flooding.

It will be followed by widespread gusts of 60 to 70 miles (97 to 113km) an hour across southern England and south Wales on Monday, with winds reaching more than 80 miles (130km) an hour in some areas, forecasters say.

London looked set for a chaotic rush-hour after train companies First Capital Connect, C2C, Greater Anglia, Southern and Gatwick Express services all said they would not run services on Monday until it was safe to do so. That is unlikely to be before 9:00 am (0900 GMT), according to forecasts.

Robin Gisby from line operator Network Rail warned commuters to expect severe disruption.

"If we get through this in the morning, restore the service during the afternoon and are able to start up a good service on Tuesday morning, in the circumstances I'll be pretty pleased," he added.

Cross-channel train service Eurostar said it would not be running trains on Monday until 7:00 am, meaning delays to early services.

Several ferry operators said they had cancelled some cross-Channel services and Irish Sea crossings.

Level 4 storm

The Met Office issued an "amber" wind warning for the region, the third highest in a four-level scale, and urged people to delay their Monday morning journeys to work to avoid the worst of the bad weather.

In northwest France 30,000 homes were without electricity early Monday, said the ERDF distribution network, after wind gusts reached 133km (83 miles) in some areas knocking down power lines but no major damage or injury were reported.

Meanwhile, the rough conditions led to rescuers standing down the search for a 14-year-old boy who was washed out to sea from a beach in East Sussex on England's south coast.

Britain last experienced similar wind strengths in March 2008, but forecaster Helen Chivers told AFP the expected damage was more comparable with a storm seen in October 2002.

Prime Minister David Cameron received an update from officials on contingency planning in a conference call on Sunday, amid fears of similar damage wrought by the ‘Great Storm’ of October 1987.

That left 18 people dead in Britain and four in France, felled 15 million trees and caused damages worth more than £1 billion ($1.6 billion or 1.2 billion euros at current exchange rates) as winds blew up to 115 miles (185 kilometres) an hour.

This year's storm has been named St Jude after the patron saint of lost causes, whose feast day is on Monday.

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