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By CHRIS FONTAINE, Associated Press
LONDON
- Severe storms battered Britain and France on Monday, uprooting
stranding ferry passengers at sea, disrupting transport
and knocking out power to thousands of homes. At least three
people were reported killed.
Many
flights were delayed or canceled at London's Heathrow Airport,
the world's busiest for international travelers. British
Airways said a large number of flights elsewhere in the
country were canceled because of high winds. All flights
out of Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport were suspended temporarily.
Much
of Britain's rail network was brought to a standstill. France's
high-speed trains were running at half-speed. And the high-speed
Eurostar rail service from London to Paris and Brussels
was halted after winds gusting up to 90 mph littered the
track with fallen trees and debris overnight.
Road
travel in Britain slowed to a crawl. Large sections of the
M25 highway circling London were closed as drainage channels
failed to cope with the sheer volume of water. Other arteries
were affected as well.
One
person was killed and two were seriously injured Sunday
night when a tree fell onto a busy roadway in southern England,
striking two passing cars. Another motorist was reported
killed Monday in southwest England after his motorcycle
apparently crashed into a fallen tree.
In France,
one person in a car was crushed to death by a falling tree
Monday morning near the English Channel port of Le Havre.
At sea,
six ferries were forced to seek shelter in a bay on the
southeast coast of England after authorities at the Dover
seaport decided that gale-force winds and high seas could
make docking unsafe.
Off
the coast of France, an Italian cargo ship carrying chemical
products sent out distress signals as gale-force winds lashed
the Atlantic coast. A Coast Guard official in Rome said
all 14 people aboard were taken ashore by helicopter.
In southern
England, nearly 30,000 homes lost electricity into early
Monday as 90 mph gusts snapped power lines and uprooted
trees. Severe flooding forced families out of dozens of
homes in Wales and southern England.
At least
one tornado - rare in Britain - was also spawned by the
storms. A twister hit the coastal town of Bognor Regis,
50 miles southwest of London, on Saturday night, injuring
four people and damaging hundreds of homes.
What
was believed to be a second tornado was reported early Monday
at a trailer park a few miles north in Selsey, injuring
two people and leaving a trail of wreckage. Britain's last
recorded tornado struck Selsey in January 1998.
British
insurers fear the storms could be the most costly since
1990, with damages already estimated to be climbing past
$3 million.
The
storm was expected to affect other parts of Europe in the
next few days.
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