ROME: The death toll from Storm Ciaran rose to at least 15 across Western Europe Friday (Nov 3), as heavy downpours and record winds brought chaos to land, sea and air travel.
At least six people died in Tuscany, Italian authorities announced, declaring a state of emergency as weather specialists reported record rainfall.
Another three people were killed off the coast of Portugal when a sailboat ran aground north of Lisbon in strong swells.
In Italy, the rescue services were called out to dozens of incidents across Tuscany to help motorists stranded in flooded tunnels or hemmed in by trees brought down by the winds.
Tuscany governor Eugenio Giani said the five dead in the Italy storms included an 85-year-old man found drowned on the ground floor of his house in Montemurlo, northwest of Florence.
“What happened tonight in Tuscany has a name: climate change,” Giani wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
MILLIONS DISRUPTED
Some 1.2 million French homes lost electricity as the storm lashed the northwest coast. French President Emmanuel Macron visited the storm-battered region of Brittany on Friday, his office said.
The wind gusts in the western Brittany region were “exceptional” and “many absolute records have been broken”, national weather service Meteo-France said on X.
Rail services in western parts of the country would remain disrupted on Friday, said Transport Minister Clement Beaune.
Scientists have warned the world will experience more extreme weather events because of the global warming caused by greenhouse gases.
“The links between climate change and winter storms in Europe are complex,” said Hannah Cloke, professor of Hydrology at England’s Reading university.
“But as seas and air temperatures get warmer, we expect some winter storms to bring more rain, and potentially cause more flooding.”
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