Heavy Rains Batter Scotland and Eastern Europe

On Thursday, December 5^th, Scotland and Eastern Europe were hit with strong wind and heavy rain. This disrupted rail and road traffic as a series of significant storms traveled across northwestern Europe from the North Atlantic and North Sea, So far there has only been one death associated with the Storm surges. Police in Scotland said the man was a truck driver whose truck overturned and struck other vehicles. According to the Environmental Agency, England was facing coastal tidal surges that were larger than any recorded in the last sixty years. As a result, Residents in some towns and cities on the Norfolk coast were being evacuated to safety. The Environmental Agency even stated that “In some areas, sea levels could be higher than those during the devastating floods of 1953.” According to the British Met Office, that storm surge killed approximately 1,800 people in the Netherlands and at least 300 people in the UK. The ScotRail train service in Scotland was forced to suspend all services as tracks were flooded or covered with debris. The spokesman for Network Rail in Scotland, stated that Glasgow Cetral Station was evacuated after debris damaged the buildings glass roof. Additionally, motorists and some flights were disrupted. Even though the worst of the storm later passed, a British Train Operator of Network rail was quoted as saying “It will be many hours yet before services return to near normal levels, and so the network in Scotland and the north of England will continue to be severely impacted by today’s storm.”