UK leads 150,000-home outage as Storms Boelo and Austen hit Europe

Northern Europe faced its first major storm system of the autumn as Boelo and Austen moved through the region within 24 hours. The weather event killed at least one person and severed power to over 150,000 households.

Officials reported that more than 82,000 homes in the United Kingdom, nearly 60,000 in France, and at least 10,000 in Germany were without electricity on Sunday. The United Kingdom suffered the highest number of outages among the three nations.

In southwestern Scotland, a 60-year-old man died after a tree fell on him. Two women were injured by a falling tree in central Scotland. Winds reached 135 km/h in the Argyll and Bute areas of western Scotland, knocking down trees and power lines that blocked roads and rail lines.

The Met Office issued a warning that Boelo posed a danger to life from flying debris and crashing waves. The agency advised the public to remain indoors as much as possible. Authorities also warned of flood risks in parts of Scotland and England.

In France, energy provider Enedis said that 288,000 homes lost power at the peak of Austen on Saturday. By midday on Sunday, 59,000 homes remained dark, primarily in Normandy and Brittany. A marathon runner in northern France was lightly injured when a tree fell during a race.

Germany experienced power cuts in and around the southwestern town of Freiburg-Breisgau. The local main hospital limited services to emergency cases due to the blackout, which also interrupted mobile phone service. In the Netherlands, three crew members on a freight ship were injured north of Schiermonnikoog island. Two were transported by helicopter to a hospital on the mainland.

The storms caused hundreds of flight cancellations and diversions across northern Europe, including at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport. In Belgium, falling trees injured four people in Brussels on Saturday. In England, Austen blew away an unused pier in Brighton.