05/12/2013 18:30
1 dead in Scotland as storms disrupt travel, threaten flooding in Europe
Strong winds and heavy rain battered Scotland Thursday, disrupting rail and road traffic as northwestern Europe braced for heavy storms sweeping across the North Atlantic and North Sea, CNN reported.
A truck driver was killed in West Lothian, west of Edinburgh, when his truck overturned and struck other vehicles. Four others involved in the collision suffered minor injuries, Police Scotland said in a statement.
Further south, England was facing the most serious coastal tidal surge in more than 60 years, the Environment Agency warned.
Residents in some towns and cities on the Norfolk coast were evacuating.
"In some areas, sea levels could be higher than those during the devastating floods of 1953," the agency said in a statement, although it said the flood defenses are better now than they were then.
The 1953 North Sea storm surge killed about 1,800 people in the Netherlands and more than 300 in the UK, according to the British Met Office.
Gales of up to 90 mph spread across the region. In some mountainous areas, wind speeds of more than 140 mph were recorded overnight, the Met Office aid.
Scotland's train authority, ScotRail, suspended all service, as tracks were flooded or covered in debris, and motorists were advised to delay journeys. Some flights serving Scotland were also disrupted.
Glasgow Central Station was evacuated after the building's glass roof was damaged by debris, Nick King, a spokesman for Network Rail in Scotland said. The worst of the storm had passed in some areas, and rail workers were assessing damage and looking at where services could restart, he said.