Brussels/Paris/London/Berlin, Jan 3 (EFE).- Europe’s first major storm of the year has caused heavy rains and flooding in parts of Belgium, the Netherlands, , United Kingdom and , killing at least three people.
The rains have also caused extensive property damage and power outages to thousands of homes.
On Tuesday night, a 59-year-old woman was killed in East Flanders in Belgium when she was hit by a fence that had been swept up by the wind.
In the UK, a man in his 50s was killed by a falling tree while he was driving near the town of Kemble, in southwest England, local police said Wednesday.
In the Netherlands, a 75-year-old man died on Tuesday night in a village near Eindhoven after falling off his bicycle due to the high winds, according to police.
The floods affected homes and forced authorities across northern Belgium to activate emergency protocols, although no major evacuations are planned yet.
In the southern Walloon city of Namur, 18 people were evicted from a campsite to a sports center, according to Belgian media reports.
Several rivers and their tributaries in the southern Belgian region could burst their banks in the coming hours.
The Belgian national meteorological service predicts the storm will last until Thursday.
Across the border in northern , flooding has forced some 200 homes to be evacuated in towns near the port of Calais.
Since Saturday, 450 firefighters from Pas de Calais have been mobilized, with 120 more expected to them from other departments on Wednesday, following instructions from Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin.
More than 300 flood warnings are in effect in England and Wales where thousands of homes have been left without power and transport services have been severely disrupted by storm Henk.
Northern was also grappling with rising water levels in rivers and streams, forcing some districts to call on the federal army for help.
The worst affected regions remain Lower Saxony, southern Saxony-Anhalt and northern Thuringia, as well as parts of North Rhine-Westphalia (west).
According to weather forecasts, up to 80 liters of rain per square meter could fall in by Thursday. EFE
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