Powerful storm Nils cuts power to 450,000 homes in France, kills one, and disrupts travel across southern Europe with high winds and flooding.
PARIS: Around 450,000 households in southern France remained without power on Friday.
The outage followed a severe storm that tore through the region, ripping up trees and flooding roads.
High winds and heavy rain brought chaos across southern France, northern Spain and parts of Portugal on Thursday.
The disruption forced widespread cancellations of flights, trains and ferries.
French officials confirmed one fatality, a truck driver killed when a tree smashed through his windscreen.
Dozens were injured in weather-related incidents in Spain, and a viaduct in Portugal partially collapsed due to flooding.
French forecasters said the storm, named Nils, was “unusually strong”.
Electricity distributor Enedis said it had mobilised around 3,000 workers to reconnect households.
“Enedis has restored service to 50% of the 900,000 customers who were without electricity,” it stated early Friday.
“Flooding complicates repairs because the fields are waterlogged and some roads are blocked,” Enedis crisis director Herve Champenois said.
Residents across southern France were shocked by the storm’s ferocity.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Ingrid, a florist in Perpignan.
“A tree almost fell on my car — two seconds more and it would have.”
“During the night, you could hear tiles lifting, rubbish bins rolling down the street — it was crazy,” said Eugenie Ferrier from the village of Roaillan.
Forecasters said the storm had moved eastwards away from French territory, though some areas remained on alert for flooding.
