Heralded as a "meteorological bomb," Storm Ciaran raised the specter of a "storm of the century." Between December 26 and 28, 1999, Storms Lothar and Martin left 140 dead in Europe, including 92 in France. The human toll of Ciaran – which crossed a large northwestern quarter of France on Thursday, November 2, and whose violent winds were felt as far away as Spain – is much lower. According to provisional figures, 10 people were killed in Europe, most of them as a result of falling trees or branches: a 5-year-old child and a 64-year-old woman in parks in Ghent, Belgium; a 23-year-old woman crushed by a tree at a crosswalk in central Madrid; a 46-year-old woman hiking in the Harz mountains in central Germany; and another victim in the Netherlands, at Venray, in the province of Limburg.

In France, a 55-year-old truck driver was killed by a tree that fell on the cab of his truck on the RN 31 near Soisson, northern France, and a 70-year-old man was found dead in Le Havre, in Normandy, after a 5-meter fall caused by a strong gust of wind while he was closing a shutter. At least 16 other people were injured, including seven firefighters. According to the French Interior Ministry, firefighters responded to more than 3,500 incidents.

The violent winds – gusts sometimes reached 200 kilometers per hour in Finistère, in western Brittany – also caused material damage, with trees uprooted, roofs blown off and cars smashed open. Although the final toll has yet to be determined, it is likely to be much lower than after the storms of 1999, when the cost of material damage was estimated at around €20 billion at the European level. There were no alarms for the forests either, 6% of which (the equivalent of the Gironde department) were decimated by Lothar and Martin. But foresters have not yet been able to enter the forests, most of which are off-limits.

Above all, Ciaran caused major disruptions. In England, where the storm struck after sweeping across the Channel, hundreds of schools were closed and 8,500 homes were left without power. In France, at the height of the storm, more than 1.2 million homes were without power, including 780,000 in Brittany and 255,000 in Normandy, due to fallen trees on power lines, demolished pylons and severed cables. In these two regions, the total is"three times higher than that recorded during the storms of 1999, according to Enedis president Marianne Laigneau. "In some places in Brittany and Normandy, the grid has been chopped to pieces," she reported.

You have 45% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.