On Saturday evening, travelers still have to take into account many blockages and cancellations. ProRail has announced that it will be working on repair work until at least Sunday. After the storm, the railway manager received more than two hundred reports of incidents, varying from trees on the track, damage to stations and broken overhead wires. In the southern provinces, where the storm had the least impact, repair work is most advanced. East of Amsterdam, between Utrecht and Amsterdam and near the Flevolijn, there are currently the biggest problems.
The clearances are also still underway on many highways on Saturday. In the night after the storm, many road signs, branches and trees were removed from the asphalt. Rijkswaterstaat advises road users to check the traffic information and the weather information before departure. “Be aware of nuisance caused by clean-up and repair work,” said a spokesperson.
Heavy wind gusts again
In the night from Friday to Saturday, the KNMI lifted code red for the entire country. There are currently no weather warnings. According to the KNMI, heavy wind gusts can again occur on Saturday evening and Sunday, especially in the west of the country. From 9 p.m., code yellow will again apply to South Holland and Zeeland.
Storm Eunice claimed four lives across the country on Friday. In the afternoon a falling tree killed a person in Amsterdam. Shortly afterwards, a tree fell on a car in neighboring Diemen, killing one occupant. At the end of the afternoon, it was announced that a cyclist had also been killed by a tree in the capital. Finally, a motorist collided with a fallen tree near Adorp in Groningen on Friday evening. He died of his injuries.
Elsewhere in Europe, at least nine more were killed and countless injured. At least two people were killed in Germany. In the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, a motorist collided with a tree, another was blown off the road. Belgium, Ireland, Poland and the United Kingdom also reported deaths.
The storm also left several people seriously injured at home and abroad. For example, in Boekel in Noord-Brabant, a tree fell on an elderly woman, who suffered several broken bones. In Germany, a passenger on a ferry in Hamburg was injured after a wave hit the bow of the boat through a window. In Ghent, Belgium, someone was seriously injured when he got a solar panel against his head, in Veurne a truck driver was seriously injured when his vehicle was blown over by the wind.
Due to the many reports, the emergency number 112 in the Netherlands became overloaded at the end of the afternoon on Friday. The police then sent an NL-Alert to mobile phones nationwide. The control rooms are now easily accessible again.
Thousands of storm damage reports
In the meantime, the Netherlands is making up the storm damage. More than three thousand reports of storm damage had already been received by insurer Interpolis on Saturday morning, mainly concerning damage to homes. Also at Centraal Beheer (2,500) the number of damage reports had risen considerably on Saturday. On Saturday morning, Univé had already submitted claims for an amount of 3.5 million euros, also for damage caused by the storm Dudley earlier in the week. The insurers announced that they would deploy additional staff to handle all reports.
Due to pipe breaks caused by the storm, several people may have little or no water from the tap on Saturday. Water company Vitens says it will inventory the damage and repair it as soon as it is safe to do so. It is not clear exactly which parts of the country have been affected.
Across the country, the wind tore off roof tiles, facade panels and solar panels on Friday. In Groningen and Appingedam, more than twenty homes had to be evacuated last night because the roofs were partly blown away. In The Hague, houses around the Elandkerk were temporarily evacuated because one of the towers swayed dangerously back and forth; the residents were allowed to go home early in the evening.
The wind also tore a piece of the roof of the football stadium of ADO Den Haag. In Tiel, part of the buildings of the Rivierenland Hospital had their roof blown off. And in Rotterdam Eunice destroyed a large inflatable sports hall of a hockey club.
Eunice has also caused great damage in neighboring countries. Tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of households in Germany, France and the United Kingdom were left without electricity. In London, parts of the roof of the iconic O2 Arena were blown off.