Storm Eunice caused major damage in the Netherlands on Friday. In addition, several people were killed at home and abroad. Some roads are still closed on Saturday, and public transport is also largely at a standstill.
In the Netherlands, as far as is known, four people died as a result of the storm. Fallen trees killed three people in Amsterdam. One person also died in the storm in Groningen. In addition, at least two people in each country were killed by the storm in Germany and the United Kingdom. At least one person was killed in Belgium.
Public transport disrupted
According to rail manager ProRail, a lot of damage was done and, with a few exceptions, there were still no trains on Saturday morning. In many places in the country fallen trees are lying on the track or the overhead wires are damaged. The NS announced around 09:45 that the trains will run again in the course of the afternoon. However, travelers must take into account delays, other routes and cancellations of certain trains.
About eighty flights do not depart from Schiphol Airport today. According to a spokesperson, “it is obvious” that this is due to the weather conditions, the ANP writes. “We are not flying at full capacity today, but expect few problems due to the weather.”
Some national roads were still closed on Saturday morning due to fallen trees, such as the A12/A27 near Utrecht.
Hundreds of damage reports
A total of hundreds of damage reports were received in the security regions, ANP news agency writes on Saturday. Insurer Interpolis counted more than 2,400 reports of storm damage on Friday evening, while not all parts of the country had yet passed the peak of the storm. Centraal Beheer spoke of 2,500 reports, Univé of 1,100.
Trees blown down, blown away facades and roof panels caused nuisance in large parts of the Netherlands due to the storm. In several places people had to leave their homes because of possible danger, or because roofs had blown away. For example, residents of the Elandkerk in The Hague were evacuated twice because of the danger of one of the two towers collapsing. Water company Vitens reported on Saturday morning that households could be faced with no or low water pressure due to pipe breaks in several places in the country.
The KNMI withdrew code red, which applied to North Holland, Flevoland, Friesland, the IJsselmeer and the Wadden area, last night. On Saturday morning, code yellow is only in force in Zeeland and South Holland, code green applies in the rest of the country.