Six people killed, schools closed and hundreds of flights cancelled Six people have been killed as Storm Ciarán brought chaos to western Europe today, closing schools, shutting down train services and cancelling hundreds of flights, reports Reuters. A truck driver was killed after a tree fell on him in France and a second death was reported in Le Havre. Falling trees killed a woman in Madrid and another woman in the Netherlands, while two people – a five-year-old and a 64-year-old from Germany – died in Ghent by falling branches. In France, 1.2m households were left without electricity and 15 people, including seven firefighters, were injured. Residents in Finistère, Brittany, were urged to stay at home to avoid winds of 207km/h (129mph) and reports of 20-metre (66ft) waves off the coast. In Britain, the Channel Islands were among the worst affected areas, with reports of windows blown in and a roof ripped off. KLM, the Dutch airline, cancelled hundreds of flights to and from Amsterdam and international trains from the Dutch capital to Paris were cancelled. Shipping lanes in the south-west of the Netherlands were closed. The airport operator Aena said 42 flights in Spain, where waves of 9 metres were expected, were cancelled. La Pinilla, a ski resort north of Madrid, and Estaca de Bares in Galicia registered wind velocities of more than 150km/h. Closing summary At least seven people were killed and dozens injured as Storm Ciarán battered north-west Europe with torrential rain and winds of up to 124mph, damaging homes and forcing schools to close and airlines and train companies to halt services. Almost 20,000 UK homes and businesses were without power at lunchtime, with emergency grid maintenance teams mobilised from around the UK to help reconnect homes in the south of England. There remained 9,000 properties without power this evening in south-west England, according to the National Grid. The Energy Networks Association, which represents power network operators in the UK and Ireland, said 107,000 customers were reconnected so far today “in very challenging weather conditions”. Landowners in England have claimed that farmers and rural communities are “unfairly shouldering the burden” of flooding, blaming “years of poor management” by the Environment Agency. A national headwind cycling event in the Netherlands was called off as Storm Ciarán battered the country’s coast. Despite the founder, Robrecht Stoekenbroek, telling media yesterday that people were “desperately enthusiastic” for the eighth race – which can only happen in high winds – conditions were too much even for Dutch cyclists. The port of Dover was briefly closed this morning, and ferries across the Channel to Calais cancelled, as Storm Ciarán blew gusts of more than 70mph off the coast of Kent. Sophie van Hensbergen, 36, who lives with her husband Driky, 35 and their two sons aged one and three in Loders, west Dorset, said the storm tore off their chimney. The family were getting ready for bed at just after 11pm last night when the house “shook in the wind”, van Hensbergen said. There was a very, very powerful whistling sound and the windows looked as though we were in a carwash. The noise lasted about 30 seconds. We have a fireplace in our bedroom and suddenly soot and brick and whatever else was falling into our bedroom. We were there with our one-year-old son so it was quite scary. Our neighbour was in the garden and called up to us saying he thought we’d been struck by lightning and that our whole chimney was in his garden. But when Driky went out to take a look we hadn’t been struck by lightning as nothing was on fire. There was a very clear line of destruction that goes from the house opposite which had their thatched roof torn off one end to us and three little cottages which have all had the ridge of the roof taken off. One nearby family were unable to locate their trampoline which had been lifted up in the severe winds, and a nearby ash landed on the school roof which had remained closed today. Van Hensbergen added: “In our neighbour’s garden there’s a big oak tree and it looks as if a giant has used a chainsaw to rip off all the branches.” There are 9,000 properties without power in south-west England, according to the National Grid. The Cornwall councillor in charge of environment and public protection, Martyn Alvey, said the storm had led to a “significant event” in the region that had left highways teams dealing with about 180 reports of fallen trees, debris and blocked drains. “For people in their homes, particularly those who had lost power, it would have been a fairly traumatic experience.” However, the Hampshire and the Isle of Wight local resilience forum (LRF) has downgraded its major incident this afternoon as the area had not experienced the “full extent of the forecast weather”. Assistant chief constable Paul Bartolomeo, the LRF’s chairman, said: While we have seen flooding of properties and roads, power outages and disruption to the highways networks caused by the wind and rain, we have thankfully not seen the full extent of the forecast weather, and we are now in a position to stand down the major incident response. In Dorset, firefighters have evacuated 70 people from 198 caravans at Freshwater Holiday Park in Burton Bradstock, near Bradport, with some being taken to dry land by boat. The UK floods minister Rebecca Pow has expressed her gratitude to the emergency services teams “working incredibly hard” to respond to the storm. She said it continued to bring strong winds and rain across the south coast. Potential flooding risks remain across the country with river levels remaining high with large waves at the coast and saturated ground. Environment Agency teams are on the ground operating assets, clearing rivers and debris from falling trees and working with partners to support residents in communities at risk or recently affected by flooding. We have activated our emergency operations centre and are supporting the Cabinet Office to coordinate the government response. A student in Cornwall woke up when Storm Ciarán ‘blew off’ the roof from her attic bedroom this morning. Katie Marsh, who lives in Falmouth, Cornwall, was “terrified” when it occurred at about 5.30am. She told the BBC (photos can be viewed of her roofless room) that the first thing she did was save her laptop “because I have got a lot of uni work on there”. Our roof completely blew off and collapsed into my room on top of me. I think most of the roof is gone now. I was screaming quite loudly – it was very shocking. All the plaster and the beams fell on to my bed and woke me up. I’m trying to figure out where I am going to stay, how I am going to get my stuff moved and figure out what is damaged. It was terrifying. I tried to save my laptop because I have got a lot of uni work on there and I knew it was under the roof so I got that out.” Some of the most vivid photos showing the impact of the storm across the British Isles. Courtesy of a reader, a close call for a car on Jubilee Road in Totnes, Devon, and a view of the fallen tree from their kitchen. At least seven people have been killed and dozens injured as Storm Ciarán battered north-west Europe with torrential rain and winds of up to 200km/h (124mph), damaging homes and forcing schools to close and airlines and train companies to halt services. A truck driver was killed by a falling tree in the Aisne département of northern France, authorities said on Thursday, while more than 1.2 million people lost their electricity supply, including about half the population of Brittany. A 70-year-old man died in Le Havre after falling off his balcony in an accident police described as linked to Storm Ciarán’s record-breaking winds, while in Spain a woman was killed when a tree fell on her in central Madrid and three people were injured. Two people died in central Ghent, Belgium, after being hit by falling branches from trees. One of the victims was five years old, while the other one was a 64-year-old German woman visiting Belgium. A third was seriously injured in the port city of Antwerp when a high wall gave way in record winds, authorities said. In the Netherlands a person was crushed to death by a tree in Venray in the southern province of Limburg, local media said. At least 10 other people were injured by flying debris around the country, at least three seriously. The German fire service also said on Thursday that a 46-year-old woman from Bavaria who was on a family holiday with her husband and two children had been killed by a falling tree while out hiking near Rammelsberg in the Harz mountains. Schemes in Ireland to support businesses whose premises have been flooded in recent weeks have been extended to retailers and community groups affected by Storm Ciarán. Two schemes have been approved for small businesses, sports clubs and community and voluntary organisations unable to secure flood insurance and affected by extreme weather events, PA reports. Ministers made the decision at a cabinet meeting today to extend the two schemes to businesses based in counties Louth and Wexford that have been hit by flooding since 24 October. One scheme offers an initial €5,000 (£4,400) payment and total support of up to €20,000 based on the scale of the damage. A second scheme, set up in response to unprecedented flooding in Midleton, County Cork, offers an initial payment of €10,000 to businesses and up to €100,000 euro in total after auditing and assessment. The enterprise minister, Simon Coveney, said the schemes would provide “urgent assistance to businesses that were unable, through no fault of their own, to get insurance to help with the costs of repairing the damage caused by flooding”. As with similar weather events in the past, the Irish Red Cross will administer and make payments under the scheme on behalf of my department. Six people killed, schools closed and hundreds of flights cancelled Six people have been killed as Storm Ciarán brought chaos to western Europe today, closing schools, shutting down train services and cancelling hundreds of flights, reports Reuters. A truck driver was killed after a tree fell on him in France and a second death was reported in Le Havre. Falling trees killed a woman in Madrid and another woman in the Netherlands, while two people – a five-year-old and a 64-year-old from Germany – died in Ghent by falling branches. In France, 1.2m households were left without electricity and 15 people, including seven firefighters, were injured. Residents in Finistère, Brittany, were urged to stay at home to avoid winds of 207km/h (129mph) and reports of 20-metre (66ft) waves off the coast. In Britain, the Channel Islands were among the worst affected areas, with reports of windows blown in and a roof ripped off. KLM, the Dutch airline, cancelled hundreds of flights to and from Amsterdam and international trains from the Dutch capital to Paris were cancelled. Shipping lanes in the south-west of the Netherlands were closed. The airport operator Aena said 42 flights in Spain, where waves of 9 metres were expected, were cancelled. La Pinilla, a ski resort north of Madrid, and Estaca de Bares in Galicia registered wind velocities of more than 150km/h.