...på franske forsikringsselskaper på grunn av orkan/tornado-uværet. Det er
kapitalistisk "solidaritet" med ofrene at rottene forlater det synkende
skipet. Dagsnytt 18 på radio p2 hadde i kveld en forbilledlig dekning av
dette stoffet med Steinar Lem og for en gangs skyld en god representant for
DMI tilstede i studio. Glimrende radio! Og godt å merke at man ikke alltid
trenger å komme fram med kritikken. La oss håpe at dette uværet som treffer
det sentrale EU midt i solar plexus fører til ettertanke...
Nedenstående reportasje i Daily Telegraph er også god. Leg merke til den
kvinnelige sveitsiske presidentens presise kommentar: "Vi kan ikke
fortsette med å oppfatte naturen som om den var en temmet hest".
Karsten Johansen
THE death count from violent storms that tore across much of western Europe
over the Christmas weekend rose to 74 yesterday.
Hurricane force winds of up to 136 mph battered the Continent, causing huge
damage to France's cultural treasures. They left a trail of destruction
across France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy and Spain.
Officials in Paris said the capital had suffered its worst storm for 50
years. The mayor, Jean Tiberi, asked the government to declare the city a
disaster area to speed up insurance payments. Windows in the château at
Versailles were smashed, and about 10,000 trees - including one planted by
Napoleon Bonaparte - were uprooted in its gardens.
The list of damaged properties read like an A to Z of the French capital's
historic buildings: Notre Dame cathedral, the Pantheon and the Sainte
Chapelle all suffered. At Notre Dame, four small spires were blown off the
roof and part of the northern vestry collapsed. The ancient abbey on Mont
St Michel in Normandy, visited by three million people a year, was closed
indefinitely after winds damaged the roof and smashed windows.
Six other historic churches in Paris were damaged and tens of thousands of
trees uprooted in the capital's Vincennes and Boulogne woods. In northern
and eastern France, where at least 33 people were reported to have been
killed, about 1,500,000 homes were without electricity yesterday as
emergency teams removed fallen trees and chimney rubble.
Many rail and air passengers were stranded. Like the great storm that
ravaged southern England in 1987, meteorologists had failed to predict its
ferocity. Jean-Claude Gayssot, the French transport minister, said:
"There's never been anything like this. Obviously, because it was unique
and exceptional, we were far less prepared than if it were something that
had happened before."
Eleven deaths were reported in Switzerland, including thise of two people
in a ski gondola brought down in the Alps. Trees were flattened, buildings
damaged and thousands of travellers had to spend Sunday night in trains or
at stations after railway lines were blocked.
Ruth Dreifuss, the Swiss president, said: "We forget from time to time that
nature has its own rules. This lesson, which we have learnt once again, is
painful but perhaps useful. We cannot deal with nature like a tame horse."
The storm killed at least 17 people in Germany. Some motorways and many
smaller roads - especially around Stuttgart - were still blocked by fallen
trees yesterday. The authorities sounded an avalanche warning for the
German Alps. Meteorologists said such strong winds had never been recorded
before in inland Germany.
Stretches of trees in the Black Forest were flattened like matchsticks by
the storm, which caused heavy disruption to rail services as well as on the
roads. The police described conditions as "pure chaos". Rivers breaking
their banks deprived about 30,000 people of drinking water in Belgium's
southern Charleroi region, where emergency services began delivering water
in tankers and plastic bags.
In Italy, a light plane crashed and its pilot and instructor were killed
near Turin after the pilot lost control in severe turbulence caused by
winds. Gusts of up to 84 mph lashed Italy's central Adriatic coast, blowing
away roofs, cutting power lines and toppling trees.
In northern Spain, a gust knocked down a wall under construction at a truck
stop, killing two workers. Hurricane-force gusts were reported in the
Salzkammergut region of Austria. About 2,000 people were evacuated from a
cinema complex in St Poelten, west of Vienna, as winds threatened to bring
the roof down.
At least 33 people have died in Thailand in the past week after freak cold
weather swept down from China. In northern Nigeria, about 25,000 people
have been left homeless by rising waters from Lake Chad following the
heaviest rains in the region for 30 years.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jan 13 2000 - 15:17:49 MET