PARIS: Around 450,000 households in southern France were without power on Friday, operator Enedis said, a day after a storm tore through the region, ripping up trees and flooding roads.
High winds and hard rain brought chaos across southern France, northern Spain and parts of Portugal on Thursday, forcing cancelations of flights, trains and ferries and disruption on roads.
French officials said a truck driver was killed when a tree smashed through his windscreen, while dozens were injured in weather-related incidents in Spain and a viaduct in Portugal partially collapsed because of flooding.
French forecasters said the storm, named Nils, was “unusually strong” and France’s electricity distributor said it had mobilized around 3,000 as it battled to reconnect households to the grid.
“Enedis has restored service to 50 percent of the 900,000 customers who were without electricity,” it wrote around 6:00 am (0500 GMT).
