STOCKHOLM: Deadly Storm Babet unleashed extensive flooding and damaged towns in Den­mark and Norway on Saturday, while continuing to sweep across the UK.

Three people died in Scotland and England and families were trapped in flooded homes on Friday as the storm battered Britain and Ireland. After it made landfall in Scandinavia, the storm triggered a sharp rise in water levels in towns in southern Denmark, flooding the first floor of homes which were left without power for several hours.

Water levels in several Danish towns exceeded their normal height by more than two metres (seven feet), levels normally only reached once every hundred years, according to Denmark’s DMI weather service.

“We are having to clear large quantities of water from the towns, especially in southern Jutland,” Mar­tin Vendelbo of the Danish Emergency Management Agency told the Ritzau news agency. Fishing boats were left stranded or about to sink in the port town of Rodvig, according to photos from Danish media.

In southern Norway, up to 20,000 residents were without power after strong winds blew roofs off buildings and downed trees and power masts, but the Norwegian news agency NTB said the situation was improving.

The storm continued to wreak havoc in the UK, with London’s King’s Cross station forced to close on Saturday afternoon to prevent passengers massing on platforms after the cancellation or delay of numerous trains.

Network Rail said on X, formerly Twitter, that London North Eastern Railway (LNER), which runs services between London and the north-east of England and Scotland, was still severely disrupted due to the storm.

Published in Dawn, October 22th, 2023