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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