THE HAGUE -- The Netherlands has reviewed the unconsoling effects of the hurricane-force winds, that swept across northern and Central Europe on Thursday.

According to police sources, seven people died, including six on the country’s roads on Thursday, mostly due to falling trees.

Two died as a tree crashed on their car. Fallen trees were to blame for most other deaths, too.

In heavy rain and bad visibility drivers and motorcyclists rammed either into tree trunks blocking the way, or other vehicles that had had to stop in front of an obstacle. The seventh victim died of injuries in hospital on Friday. A gust of wind had thrown him off the roof of an outbuilding in his own yard.

Dozens were injured. A building crane that crashed on the roof of a university building in Utrecht seriously injured six.

In the city of Tholen, Zeeland province, a bus was overturned. Five of the sis injured were children.

Two railway train drivers were injured as their locomotive rammed into a tree lying on the track.

The Dutch Interior Ministry’s national crisis center has estimated the damages from the natural disaster at 200 million euros. In the Netherlands, a country with a population of 16 million, 3.5 visits to the national crisis center’s web site were registered.

About seven thousand used the center’s ‘hot line’ telephone numbers.

The national weather watching service has said it was the strongest hurricane ever since October 2002. Its strength measured 10 points. The worst-ever 11-point hurricane was registered in the Netherlands on January 25, 1990. It claimed seventeen lives.

Original Source: Itar-Tass

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