Wind, snow and frigid temperatures were wreaking havoc across Europe yesterday after a wind storm in France left thousands without electricity and icy conditions in Greece led to burst pipes and no running water for many households.
Approximately 32,500 homes in France were without electricity yesterday morning following a strong wind storm, according to a spokesman for electricity provider Enedis.
A storm on Thursday evening had cut power to as many as 330,000 homes, with electricity being restored in many areas on Friday.
The spokesman said the company hoped to have electricity restored to the remaining homes, many in rural areas, by the end of the day.
In Greece, some 150,000 residents of the central city of Volos have been without running water for the past three days after icy temperatures led water lines to freeze and burst, local media reported.
In Thessaloniki, water providers called on residents to use water sparingly, citing low levels of water supplies as a result of the burst pipes.
The cold front across Europe has triggered chaos and unusual occurrences in several other countries hit by snow and freezing temperatures in the past few days.
Germany experienced hurricane force winds and major traffic disruptions, while snow in Italy turned the canal city of Venice into a winter wonderland, with tourists and locals snapping pictures of the snow-covered Doge’s Palace and slipping on the icy walkways of the city’s more than 400 bridges.
A woman stands yesterday in front of a frozen tree covered in water from a burst pipe near Librazhd in southeast Albania. Cold and icy weather has swept Albania over the last week causing several deaths, hundreds of fractures from slippages on icy roads, frozen water pipes and water tanks as well as left isolated many villages in the northeastern monotonous part of the small Mediterranean nation.
