AFP - Saturday, November 10, 0:58
LONDON (AFP) - worst seemed to be avoided on Friday in the countries bordering the North Sea after the passage of a strong storm that has finally made only minor damage, including the Netherlands and England, where hundreds of people were evacuated.
In Norwegian waters, oil companies were busy on Friday afternoon to restart the platforms they were temporarily closed. Production was gradually regain its normal level.
The combination of storm and high tide in England had led to fears of a phenomenon high water also called "storm surge", a rising sea level caused by a major depression.
The British authorities had raised the possibility of exceeding the normal level of about 3 feet, triggering the high alert on the east coast of England.
About 500 people spent the night in shelters and others fled at the first floor of their house. But the storm has finally made some sporadic flooding.
The East Anglia (eastern England) is "a hair past major floods," said Director General of the Environment Agency Barbara Young. The manager cited the town of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk County, where the waters have reached "a level not seen since the great flood of 1953" in which more than 300 people were killed in the United Kingdom.
Great Yarmouth, the town considered the most at risk, inner-city streets have been briefly invaded by the waters. Other minor flooding has occurred in the neighboring county of Suffolk and Kent, to the south.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has promised the assistance of government to local governments, but stressed it was too early to assess damages.
The storm has not caused major damage in the Netherlands, where for the first time all locks, including those blocking the port of Rotterdam were closed. The movement of ferries between the mainland and the Frisian Islands was suspended, resumed at 1030 GMT.
The Union of Dutch Insurers has estimated the damage at around 500,000 euros, well below the floods of January 2007 which had 330 million damage. The weak sales in
late Friday afternoon, despite persistent rain and gusty.
In Germany, Kiel Canal, which connects the city to the Baltic Sea, was closed. Sixty-seven boats were stranded on Friday afternoon.
Damage was again lower than expected. Only Heligoland, an island of Germany located on the high seas, was severely beaten. Hundreds of thousands of cubic meters of sand were moved by the wind, but residents are not in danger.
Navigation ferries serving the islands of the North Sea was strongly disrupted or even stopped for some lines.
In Hamburg, the municipality has warned against the risk of flooding at the mouth of the river Elbe, but also in the center of Hamburg, squared channel, where a level of 3 to 5 meters above normal is expected in late afternoon.
In Denmark, Stena Lines, Color Lines canceled all links with Norway and Sweden, where no major damage was observed.
In Antwerp, northern Belgium, a dozen ships were stranded Friday because of the heavy swell.
0 comments:
Post a Comment