Storm-battered Europe slowly gets back to normal

Countries in northern Europe lashed by a storm that killed 16 people were on Tuesday still struggling with power outages and travel disruptions a day after the tempest.

After gusting winds and heavy rain, Britain, France, the Netherlands, Scandinavia and northern Germany began weighing up the damage left in the storm’s wake.

In Britain, where four people died, 61,000 households were still without electricity, albeit down from the 600,000 who were cut off at some point on Monday, according to Energy Networks Association.

While some trains were delayed or cancelled, services were returning to schedule.

In Germany, where seven people died in the storms since Sunday, train operator Deutsche Bahn warned that lines in the north of the country could take time to resume normal services.

The storm wreaked damage on rail lines in the cities of Bremen and Hamburg as well as Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein states, the company said.

Several schools in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany’s northern most region between the North Sea and Baltic, were due to remain closed on Tuesday, local DPA news agency reported.

Most train lines in southern Sweden were operating again but about 60,000 homes were still without electricity and some 35,000 phone customers are without landlines.

In some rural areas, it was expected to take several days before electricity was back on.

Two people died in Denmark, where national rail company DSB warned of delays throughout the day.

And in the Netherlands, where two people died, initial private sector damage was estimated at 95 million euros ($131 million), excluding public buildings and agriculture, the Insurers Association said.

The storm also claimed one life in France, where it has been named Christian, while British media dubbed it St Jude after the patron saint of lost causes whose feast day was on Monday.