A storm swept across northern France today, cutting off more than 600,000 homes from the power grid and forcing the closure of the airports in Paris.
It was the second major storm to hit France in less than three weeks after gale force winds killed four people and left close to 2 million homes without power on January 24th in the southwest of the country.
In an unusual precautionary measure, authorities halted all air traffic in the Paris region yesterday evening. Planes were scheduled to start flying again from 9am this morning.
Meteo France, the weather forecast agency, said winds of up to 140 kph had buffeted the northwestern coast, while inland gusts of up to 120 kph had been recorded.
The manager of the power grid, Electricite Reseau Distribution France, still struggling to mend power lines in the southwest after the first storm, said a total of 608,000 homes were cut off across the northern regions of the country as trees and electricity pylons fell down.
The worst-hit areas were a belt of regions along the centre of the country, the coastal Pays de la Loire, where Nantes is located, the region around Orleans, just to the east, and Burgundy, further east.
Meteo France said the weather was less intense than the January 24th storm but affected a wider swathe of the country and would last longer. It expected the storm to move east of France 6pm.
In Brittany and along the Vendee coast, bridges to certain islands were shut down because they were too risky in the winds, but few other transport disruptions were reported.
Reuters