After another night of 100 m.p.h. gales, the death toll from two days of storms in France reached at least 62 yesterday. The total number of people who have died due to storms in western Europe since Christmas rose above 100.
Most of the 20 deaths reported in France during the day were in the south-west, where large areas were without electricity, telephones and public transport.
Germany and Switzerland suffered less seriously than on Sunday when fallen trees, collapsed buildings and road accidents killed more than 30 people in countries other than France.
In western and central Austria yesterday a snowstorm caused avalanches that took at least 12 lives, including those of nine German tourists who had hiked to mountain huts for a millennium party, the Austria Press Agency reported. The nine died near the Tyrol village of Galtuer, where 38 people were killed in February in Austria's worst avalanche tragedy for decades, according to the village mayor.
Meanwhile, several regions in France faced scenes of desolation caused by winds of more than 100 m.p.h. which uprooted millions of trees across Europe in what French weather experts described as an "historic phenomenon". In Paris, the damage was estimated to equal nearly £100 million.
The winds have pushed ashore much of the 30,000 tonnes of fuel oil carried by the tanker Erika which sunk off France's Atlantic coastline a fortnight ago. Thousands of volunteers and troops have been working with buckets and spades trying to clear beaches along a 200-mile front from Brittany to Bordeaux. The Prime Minister, Mr Lionel Jospin, visited the coastline yesterday after his Socialist-led government was accused of not reacting quickly enough to the oil slick, which has killed thousands of seabirds.
The area around La Rochelle, north of Bordeaux, took the brunt of the second wave of gales on Monday night and yesterday morning when 16 deaths were reported in the south-west - four of them heart attacks. Most of the other deaths were caused by cars hitting fallen trees.
Towns and villages were blacked out in a wide area north of the Pyrenees while rescue workers struggled to help people from houses damaged by wind and floods. Gales off the Mediterranean also shook the Riviera.
In all, three million people were without electricity yesterday after a third of the main lines on France's power grid were brought down.
Rail and road travellers faced difficult journeys. Most of the railway network to the south-west, the west and around the Paris region ceased running. Some key motorways, including the A13 from Normandy to Paris, were still blocked by trees while road-workers tried to clear thousands of trees on secondary roads. "France has been wounded and lots of French people are facing a cruel hardship just as they were about to celebrate the end of the year and of the millennium," President Jacques Chirac said.
Eight people died when rain, ice and gales hit Britain over the Christmas break.
High winds and driving rain lashed Italy, causing damage to Rome's historic Campidoglio town hall, delaying flights and whipping up seas cutting off islands in the south.
Roof tiles and parts of cornices fell from the newly renovated Campidoglio and barriers were swiftly erected over entrances. After the huge damage to trees in Paris, authorities closed the gates to all of Rome's main parks.
In Spain, six people died on Monday in winds that raged up to 170 k.p.h. (105 m.p.h.) along the north coast.