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Two dead, several seriously injured as Storm Eunice leaves trail of damage in Belgium

12:48 19/02/2022

As Storm Eunice continues to sweep across northwest Europe on Saturday, Belgium counts the cost of the destruction left in its wake.

While clean-up operations are ongoing around the country, the Royal Meterological Institute (RMI) has updated its weather forecast for the weekend, including an orange warning for the coast on Sunday evening with a risk of winds of up to 125kph.

A cold front is predicted to cross Belgium from early Sunday evening through to the early hours of Monday morning. Rain, hail and strong gusts could cause localised damage, predicts the RMI.

During Friday's severe gales, a 79-year-old British man died in Ypres after falling from his barge into the port while trying to recover objects that had blown away. Passers-by were able to rescue him from the water fairly quickly and he was treated on the scene. According to police he was transported to hospital in a critical state, where he later died.

A man in Ghent died in hospital on Saturday from the head injury he sustained from a falling solar panel during Friday's strong winds. 

Around half-a-dozen people were left with serious injuries. In Menen, near Ypres, an 18-year-old boy is in a critical condition after being injured by a falling tree branch. In a similar scenario near Namur, a woman was hurt by a tree falling on her car.

In Tournai, a crane fell on the geriatrics department of the Wallonia Picardy Hospital Center (CHwapi), leaving the crane operator seriously injured.

A young girl was trapped in a car after the fall of a gable wall and had to be rescued by Charleroi firefighters before being transported to a hospital. In Liège, a person was hit by a roof that blew off.

Eunice was officially classified as a “very strong” storm on Friday afternoon by the RMI when the wind strength measured 11 Beaufort. A peak of 133kmh was measured at the airport of Ostend.

The emergency services responded to thousands of emergencies with some services overwhelmed by calls.

With winds particularly strong in the North Sea, a drifting oil tanker and cargo boat both ended up in wind farms off the Belgian and Dutch coasts on Friday. The cargo ship was able to return to a Dutch port, while the oil tanker is waiting to be towed from the C-Power offshore park.

Transport woes caused travel problems for many people on Friday with trains and some flights cancelled. Passenger and goods train services returned to near normal on Saturday morning following repair work carried out during the night, said Belgium’s rail network manager Infrabel.

Some high speed international trains are still waiting for the green light before resuming normal service.

Brussels’ parks, gardens and woods, as well as the Sonian Forest’s car parks will remain closed until at least Tuesday, announced Brussels Environment.

Photo: Pompiers de Bruxelles – Brandweer Brussels © Robert Dekock

This article was further updated on Sunday at 10.00 

Written by The Bulletin