Extreme weather in Northern Europe

Fierce Europe storm: Thousands flee their homes

A fierce storm has battered northern Europe with hurricane force winds, leaving four people dead or missing, disrupting travel and forcing thousands to flee their homes over fears of the worst tidal surge in decades.

NZ Herald,

6 December, 2013

British authorities evacuated 10,000 homes as flooding started on the North Sea coast while Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and Sweden all boosted their flood defences.

A tree surgeon works to remove a tree, blown down by the wind onto a car, in Davidsons Mains, Edinburgh, Scotland. Photo / AP

Winds of up to 228 kilometres per hour were recorded in Scotland and Britain's environment agency said the "surge along the east coast of England is expected to be the worst for more than 60 years."

Hundreds of flights were cancelled across northern Europe while rail and ferry services were shut down and one of Europe's longest bridges - connecting Sweden to Denmark - was closed.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said he had convened the government's emergency committee to ensure necessary measures were being taken, amid fears of a repeat of a 1953 storm surge which killed more than 2,000 people in northern Europe.

In Britain, a lorry driver died when his vehicle toppled onto a number of cars in Scotland, while a man riding a mobility scooter was struck by a falling tree in Nottinghamshire, central England.

Two sailors were reportedly swept overboard from a ship off the southern Swedish coast on Thursday. Air-sea rescue services failed to find them.

People are rescued by the RNLI from the floods as heavy seas and high tides sweep across the country, in Rhyl, Wales. Photo / AP

The biggest fear across Europe was from a potentially devastating storm surge which will coincide with high tides in many areas late Thursday and early Friday.

Police and council officials said they were evacuating 9,000 homes in the county of Norfolk, eastern England, and 1,000 in Essex, southeastern England, before three high tides over the next 36 hours.

Flooding has started in some areas, with lifeboat staff evacuating several residents in North Wales, and the environment agency issuing more than 40 individual flood warnings.

In the Netherlands - where 27 percent of the country lies below sea-level - the landmark Eastern Scheldt storm surge barrier has been closed for the first time in six years.

The barrier was built after the 1953 storm surge.

Dutch authorities said they had issued the highest possible flood warning for four areas in the north and northwest of the country.

The ferry dock during a heavy storm at the North Sea coast in Dagebuell, northern Germany. Photo / AP

Belgium is expected to experience a storm surge of up to 6.1 metres, "the highest for 30 years," said Carl Decaluwe, the governor of West Flanders province.

Germany reinforced emergency services in and around the northern port of Hamburg and cancelled lessons at many schools, while Swedish authorities also issued flood warnings.

Travel chaos

There was travel chaos as the storm barrelled across the North Sea from Britain towards Germany and northwest Europe.

Many flights from Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen airports in Scotland were cancelled because of the weather conditions.

Terrifying video footage showed planes including an Emirates flight having to abort landings at the last minute after coming in almost sideways at Birmingham airport in central England.

An easyJet plane separately made failed attempts to land at both Glasgow and Edinburgh before heading to Manchester in northwest England.

"I'm feeling really lucky to be alive," said Hazel Bedford, a passenger on the easyJet plane.

"Everything started shaking and bumping, we were going up and down, up and down, like a rollercoaster. An awful lot of people were being sick."

Hamburg airport said 128 flights were cancelled because of high winds while Dutch airline KLM cancelled 84 continental flights from Amsterdam's Schiphol airport. Several internal flights were cancelled in Sweden.

Rail travel was badly hit, with all train services in Scotland cancelled at one point.

The Oeresund road and rail bridge between Sweden and Denmark closed, as did several Swedish rail lines.

The bridge links the Danish capital Copenhagen with the Swedish city of Malmo and features in the hit television series 'The Bridge'.

Danish authorities said they were closing down rail services across the country and Germany said it might do the same.

Ferries to Germany from Sweden and Denmark were cancelled.

In Britain, the storm played havoc with powerlines. More than 20,000 homes were left without power in Scotland and 6,500 in Northern Ireland.

Here is a summary from the Guardian

My colleague Fredrick McConnell sends this summary of this afternoon's main developments so far:

• Two people have been killed as storms battered Britain today. A lorry driver died in West Lothian when his HGV toppled onto a number of cars as high winds and gales battered Scotland, while a second man was killed by a falling tree in Retford, Nottinghamshire.

• Residents of Sandwich in Kent have been told to get ready to evacuate their homes as severe flooding is predicted in the town. The Environment Agency sent residents an email headed: "Severe Flooding. Danger to life." The Environment Agency – which covers England and Wales – has 41 severe flood warnings in place, most of them along the whole east coast of England, with some on the south coast near the Isle of Wight. In Newcastle, the rivers Tyne and Ouseburn have partially burst their banks.

• The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service has urged motorists to avoid driving through flooded areas. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency has flood warnings in place for 19 regions of Scotland. Some rail services restarted this afternoon, but passengers were urged to check before making their journeys.

• Around 3,700 homes are without electricity in Northern Ireland.

• Norfolk police are urging residents in 9,000 homes in Great Yarmouth to prepare to leave for up to 36 hours. Norfolk’s deputy chief constable Charlie Hall said: "This is a significant policing operation underlined by the number of people and properties affected."

• The environment secretary Owen Paterson was due to chair a second meeting of the government's emergency Cobra committee this afternoon to discuss the response to the storm

River Tyne Bursts Banks As Storm Surge Sees Highest Water Level For 30 Years

The River Tyne has burst its banks in Newcastle as storm surge flooding begins.

Tyne and Wear,

5 December, 2013

Pubs and businesses on the Quayside were inundated as the waters of the Tyne rose suddenly to a level not seen for 30 years.

Three-inch deep water flooded over footpaths and roads for 400 metres between the Tyne Bridge and the Millennium Bridge, causing roads to be closed and traffic to come to a standstill.

In Cullercoats, North Tyneside, both piers were submerged and an RNLI lifeguard base was washed into the sea.

Simon Parrock, spokesperson for the Environments Agency said: "We've had river flooding but this is the biggest tidal surge in 30 years for the entire east coast.

"We've got high tide and the river can't go anywhere so it backs up.

"It peaked at South Shields at about quarter to five so the river levels should start dropping down slowly but won't get any worse."

High waters have seeped into the Wetherspoons on the Newcastle Quayside, causing the usually busy bar to close six hours early.

A member of staff in the bar, who didn't want to be named, said: "We've been flooded and we're closing now (5pm) instead of 11pm.

"They've closed all of the roads on the quayside so there'd be no one in here anyway."

At The Slug and Lettuce, bar worker Beth Caldwell, 26, of Wallsend said: "The water seemed to come from nowhere. One moment there was nothing and the next it was up to the ground floor windows, above the level of the traffic cones.

"We'd been warned it was coming but couldn't do much about it. We just watched.

"It's being cleared out of the cellars now."

Manager of Great Coffee, Steven Deakin said: "It’s quite horrendous. We have steps at the entrance to the shop which are about 3ft high so the water hasn’t reached up them but the basement is flooded; it must have come in through the drains and in the basement.

"The water is about eight inches deep. Obviously it’s high tide so it’s all the debris from the beach so we’re currently brushing out downstairs, it’s still on the road outside but it’s clearing. Our ground floor is fine and we’re open as normal."

North Shields Fish Quay has flooded and the North Shields ferry is off.

The Customs House car park in South Shields has flooded.

Tynemouth Volunteer Life Brigade captain Peter Lilley said an RNLI lifeguard base had been washed off the jetty at Cullercoats.

"The waters rose right over the top of the jetties at Cullercoats and the hut, which was about 4ft wide by 10ft tall and which was used as a seasonal RNLI base was washed away.

"It's bobbing about in the North Sea a looking a little bit like a waterlogged Tardis.

"It'll cause us a bit of a problem to replace and should leave some pretty interesting wreckage in the morning."

On the North Shields Fish Quay the water rose rapidly, overflowing the ‘gut’ area where fishing boats land their catches, surging across the road and lapping at the doors of businesses along the quayside.

Roads were closed temporarily. A combination of sandbagging and North Tyneside Council using specialist vehicles to pump out the water prevented any major flooding damage, according to reports from local businesses.

As the tide reached its height at around 5pm, Northumbria Police tweeted: “There is concern for flats near the Porthole Pub on the Fish Quay with water levels creeping up over balconies.”

Further along the Fish Quay, some businesses lost power as the tidal surge took out the electricity supply.

Mo Zanine at Cassia Sambuca Italian restaurant said: “The water didn’t get into the restaurant but it’s cut the power which means we can’t operate the pizza oven and we have no lighting.

“I have a load of bookings for this evening and no way of contacting the customers to let them know we can’t serve them.”

Other businesses nearby including the Staith House gastropub said they had not been affected, and David Kennedy’s River Café tweeted: “Minor flooding on the fish quay, open as normal. Come on down.”

The flooding followed gale force winds which tore through Tyneside and Wearside felling trees and damaging property.

The gales, which meteorologists said reached speeds of 100mph on very high ground, were followed by snow flurries and hail.

The storm surge was blamed on the Atlantic storm which had caused the wind and snow earlier on Thursday December 5.

A Met office spokesman said the coastal surge along the East Coast of England was expected to be the worst for more than 60 years.

A storm surge is a very localised rising of sea level, independent of tides, related to the track of a storm and its accompanying winds.

The storm causes this surge of water in two ways.

Firstly strong winds, often blowing parallel to the coast or onshore, push water roughly in their direction which causes water to 'pile up' on nearby coasts.

Cullercoats jetties disappeared beneath the water @Schafernaker

The second element, which is less important for the UK, relates to differences in air pressure.

Low pressure, associated with storms, exerts less of a force on the sea surface - allowing the sea surface to temporarily rise in the vicinity of low pressure.

Local geography also plays a role.

North Sea areas are particularly prone to storm surges because water flowing into the shallower southern end cannot escape quickly through the narrow Dover Strait and the English Channel.

The shallow depths in the southern North Sea also aid the development of a large surge.

When storm surges combine with high tides, especially spring tides, and large waves they can cause flooding issues along coasts.

The Environment Agency issued eleven flood warnings for the North East, including Seahouses, Amble, Alnmouth, Cullercoats, Tynemouth, Roker, Sunderland, the River Tyne estuary, the Ouseburn, North and South Shields, Hartlepool and Billingham, and warned people to be prepared.