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Northwest Europe Struggles with Floods and Snow after Latest Atlantic Storm

Members of French Civil Security rescue team walk in a flooded street to evacuate local residents by boat as the Aa River overflows in Arques near Saint-Omer, after heavy rain caused flooding in northern France, January 3, 2024. (Reuters)
Members of French Civil Security rescue team walk in a flooded street to evacuate local residents by boat as the Aa River overflows in Arques near Saint-Omer, after heavy rain caused flooding in northern France, January 3, 2024. (Reuters)
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Northwest Europe Struggles with Floods and Snow after Latest Atlantic Storm

Members of French Civil Security rescue team walk in a flooded street to evacuate local residents by boat as the Aa River overflows in Arques near Saint-Omer, after heavy rain caused flooding in northern France, January 3, 2024. (Reuters)
Members of French Civil Security rescue team walk in a flooded street to evacuate local residents by boat as the Aa River overflows in Arques near Saint-Omer, after heavy rain caused flooding in northern France, January 3, 2024. (Reuters)

Parts of northwestern Europe struggled on Wednesday to cope with the impact of the latest in a series of Atlantic storms which dumped rain or snow on already saturated ground, while northern Scandinavia experienced extreme cold.

In northern France, rescue crews helped evacuate residents from inundated homes in the town of Arques in the Pas de Calais department, a region that had flooded for the second time in two months after heavy rainfall.

Another 20-40 millimeters (0.85-1.7 inches) of rain was expected within hours, and a red alert indicated that the river Aa was close to breaking its banks.

"The first time, you think it's had luck, but the second time, it starts to hit your morale and your wallet," said Arques resident Anthony Richevin as he was being evacuated. "You start wondering about the future."

There are no large-scale evacuations planned in the region for the time being, Van Cauter added.

A ferry travelling from Norway to Denmark with about 900 passengers aboard was unable to dock in Copenhagen because of the storm and was waiting for the wind to drop although that may not happen before Thursday morning, shipping company DFDS said.

In Norway, the southern town of Kristiansand said it had closed its schools and cancelled all public buses following heavy snowfall.

The same storm, labelled Henk on either side of the North Sea, brought gales and heavy rain to parts of England and Wales on Tuesday, causing power outages, disrupting train travel and forcing the closure of major roads because of flooding.

Trees were blown onto roads and rail tracks, killing one motorist in southwestern England.

A 59-year-old woman died in Belgium's East Flanders province on Tuesday after being hit by a blown-away fence during a period of heavy rainfall in the country, local governor Carina Van Cauter said in a statement on Wednesday.

The Arctic village of Kvikkjokk recorded an overnight temperature of -43.6 Celsius (-46.5 Fahrenheit), Sweden's coldest for the month of January in 25 years, the Swedish Met Office said.

In Lapland in northern Finland, a woman went missing in a blizzard while out skiing on Tuesday and was later found dead in an avalanche. A search was continuing on Wednesday for her child, Finnish police said.

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Varieties

Fire-hardened House Offers Lessons on Rebuilding Los Angeles

Michael Kovac's home, which is constructed with fire-resistant materials, survived the Los Angeles fires unscathed - AFP
Michael Kovac's home, which is constructed with fire-resistant materials, survived the Los Angeles fires unscathed - AFP
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Fire-hardened House Offers Lessons on Rebuilding Los Angeles

Michael Kovac's home, which is constructed with fire-resistant materials, survived the Los Angeles fires unscathed - AFP
Michael Kovac's home, which is constructed with fire-resistant materials, survived the Los Angeles fires unscathed - AFP

The house that Michael Kovac built is the only one on his street still standing after a huge fire raced through his Los Angeles neighborhood.

Now this architect says the city needs to learn from homes like his as it begins to rebuild.

"I think we always knew a fire was coming here," he said of the ridgeline in Pacific Palisades where his house sits.

Kovac and his wife, Karina Maher, who describe themselves as "avid environmentalists," designed and constructed their home with that risk in mind.

The walls are covered with non-flammable cement fiber siding, the windows are insulated to have the highest degree of protection against heat, the vents are covered in metal mesh and the fireproof roof is topped with soil and vegetation, AFP reported.

Instead of a lawn, the garden is designed as a "defensive space," where a bed of volcanic rocks is dotted with agave, dwarf olive trees and mother-in-law's cushions -- a striking spherical cactus.

All of it is protected by a sprinkler system that can spray fire retardant to slow the spread of flames.

"If most of the houses were built to something closer to this standard, I think the fire could have been contained," Kovac told AFP of the blaze that erupted on January 7.

Like many in Los Angeles, the 62-year-old was astounded by just how destructive the wind-driven fires were, with two major blazes razing around 40,000 acres (16,000 hectares) and leveling thousands of buildings.

- Materials -

As the city gradually turns its attention towards the long, slow process of rebuilding, Kovac hopes it will do so with fire resiliance in mind.

Many houses in the western United States have timber frames, and a wholesale switch to something less vulnerable like brick is unlikely, as availability and cost are key drivers in construction choices.

But even if the frame stays the same, hardening its cover doesn't have to break the bank, says Kovac.

"The choice to use, say, a cement siding instead of a wood siding, that's almost a cost neutral thing," he said.

Footage from his home's security cameras shows red-hot embers spraying all over the property -- the same embers that allowed the fire to take hold of so many homes on his street.

But not Kovac's.

"At that point you have to dismiss too much of it being luck. I mean, when it's enveloped by embers and surrounded by flames... it's down to the material choices and the systems to protect the house," he said.

Maher, a doctor who specializes in the effects of climate change on human health, says the fire was an obvious consequence of the way we are messing with our planet.

"We know the solutions to slow it down, but we also know the solutions to adapt, and that's what we all need to do," she said.

The devastation wrought by the fires was awful, says Yana Valachovic, a specialist in fire-resistant construction at the University of California, but it now presents an opportunity.

Protecting a home from the ember showers that set so many houses ablaze is among the most pressing considerations, she said.

That means hardening or stopping any ingress points, like vents.

Other important considerations are using tempered glass -- which is heat-resistant -- and rethinking the way a garden is laid out.

"Fire adaptation doesn't require a huge investment, it just requires us living a little differently," Valachovic said.