People walk in strong wind caused by Storm Eunice in Zandvoort, the Netherlands
THE HAGUE, Feb 19 (NNN-Xinhua) — Storm Eunice killed three people in the Netherlands on Friday, all of whom were killed by falling trees in the Amsterdam region.
Two people died in the city of Amsterdam, and one in the neighboring town Diemen. Meanwhile, an elderly woman was also seriously injured by a falling tree in Boekel in the province of North Brabant. She was hospitalized with multiple fractures.
The weather institute KNMI had announced a code red in all coastal provinces, the warning for life-threatening weather. Elsewhere, code orange applied, except in the southern province of Limburg where code yellow was in force.
Eunice swelled into a real storm of wind force 10 at around 3 p.m. local time, entering the country via the west coast. By evening, the storm had passed its peak in the south, west and middle of the country, but in the north gusts of over 120 kilometers per hour continued.
The storm caused many fallen trees and road traffic delays.
At Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, about 350 of 1,000 flights had to be canceled on Friday. The Dutch railway NS had already announced on Thursday that it would not operate after 2 p.m. local time. In the Hague, part of the roof of the stadium of soccer club ADO Den Haag was ruined by the storm.
In neighboring Belgium, Eunice is described as the country’s worst tempest in 30 years, wreaking havoc and causing at least one death, local media reported. Part of the roof of Zaventem Airport in Brussels was torn off by the violent gusts, disrupting air traffic. — NNN-XINHUA
