01-25-2009, 01:02 AM
By VICTORIA BURNETT
MADRID ââ¬â More than a dozen people, including four children, have been killed since Friday in Spain and France, where winds of up to 100 miles per hour have torn roofs from buildings, blown down trees and power lines and whipped up huge waves.
The Spanish authorities said that four children were killed and several others injured on Saturday when the roof of a sports center in Sant Boi de Llobregat, near Barcelona, collapsed in high winds. Witnesses said the children were preparing to play baseball and had taken shelter in the sports hall when the roof was torn off and the walls fell inward.
Jaume Bosch, the mayor of Sant Boi, said the children were between 9 and 12 years old, according to news media reports. A spokeswoman for the Catalan regional government, who spoke on the customary condition of anonymity, said seven other children and two adults were injured, one of them seriously.
José Antonio Godina, the parent of a child in the sports center, was quoted by the newspaper El Mundo as saying the scene was ââ¬Åhorrific.ââ¬Â
ââ¬ÅWe heard a very loud noise, and we thought it was a tree falling on a roof. But when we got there, the roof of the building had literally flown off and the walls had collapsed on them,ââ¬Â he said. The newspaper did not say whether Mr. Godinaââ¬â¢s child was among the injured. In northern Spain and southern France, the powerful gales cut power supplies and closed airports and roads. The French national power grid manager, Electricité Réseau Distribution France, said nearly 1.7 million homes were cut off, Reuters reported. The Catalan government estimated some 150,000 people in the region were without power and electricity officials said homes were affected in many areas of the country but could not offer a national estimate.
Authorities on both sides of the border called on people to stay indoors and steer clear of beaches and harbors as waves as high as 60 feet pounded the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts.
In France, local authorities in the Landes region said that two men were killed by falling trees and another man by a piece of flying debris, Reuters reported. In separate incidents around Spain, three people were killed by falling trees and two others when walls collapsed, police said. A Portuguese captain died after being rescued in the seas off Galicia, according to Reuters.
The French agriculture minister, Michel Barnier, said the storm was ââ¬Åthe worst since 1999,ââ¬Â when a huge storm killed 88 people in France and left nearly four million people without electricity, according to Reuters.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/world/...ss&emc=rss
MADRID ââ¬â More than a dozen people, including four children, have been killed since Friday in Spain and France, where winds of up to 100 miles per hour have torn roofs from buildings, blown down trees and power lines and whipped up huge waves.
The Spanish authorities said that four children were killed and several others injured on Saturday when the roof of a sports center in Sant Boi de Llobregat, near Barcelona, collapsed in high winds. Witnesses said the children were preparing to play baseball and had taken shelter in the sports hall when the roof was torn off and the walls fell inward.
Jaume Bosch, the mayor of Sant Boi, said the children were between 9 and 12 years old, according to news media reports. A spokeswoman for the Catalan regional government, who spoke on the customary condition of anonymity, said seven other children and two adults were injured, one of them seriously.
José Antonio Godina, the parent of a child in the sports center, was quoted by the newspaper El Mundo as saying the scene was ââ¬Åhorrific.ââ¬Â
ââ¬ÅWe heard a very loud noise, and we thought it was a tree falling on a roof. But when we got there, the roof of the building had literally flown off and the walls had collapsed on them,ââ¬Â he said. The newspaper did not say whether Mr. Godinaââ¬â¢s child was among the injured. In northern Spain and southern France, the powerful gales cut power supplies and closed airports and roads. The French national power grid manager, Electricité Réseau Distribution France, said nearly 1.7 million homes were cut off, Reuters reported. The Catalan government estimated some 150,000 people in the region were without power and electricity officials said homes were affected in many areas of the country but could not offer a national estimate.
Authorities on both sides of the border called on people to stay indoors and steer clear of beaches and harbors as waves as high as 60 feet pounded the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts.
In France, local authorities in the Landes region said that two men were killed by falling trees and another man by a piece of flying debris, Reuters reported. In separate incidents around Spain, three people were killed by falling trees and two others when walls collapsed, police said. A Portuguese captain died after being rescued in the seas off Galicia, according to Reuters.
The French agriculture minister, Michel Barnier, said the storm was ââ¬Åthe worst since 1999,ââ¬Â when a huge storm killed 88 people in France and left nearly four million people without electricity, according to Reuters.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/world/...ss&emc=rss