国产热热热精品,亚洲视频久久】日韩,三级婷婷在线久久,99人妻精品视频,精品九热人人肉肉在线,AV东京热一区二区,91po在线视频观看,久久激情宗合,青青草黄色手机视频

   

Storm surge hits Dutch, British coasts

(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-11-09 19:33

HEADLAND NEAR ROZENBURG, Netherlands - The Netherlands and Britain closed sea defense barriers, airlifted North Sea oil rig workers and evacuated thousands of people from homes as a storm sent a 3-metre tidal surge along their coasts.


Waves crash into the sea defences at Southwold in Suffolk, eastern England, during strong winds, high tides, and tidal surges, November 9, 2007. [Agencies]

British police told people to leave their homes as the east coast braced for severe flooding in the face of the surge coinciding in places with high tides.

In the early hours of Friday, the surge struck the southern coast of the Netherlands but did not breach the storm barrier near the port city of Rotterdam.

Late on Thursday spectators braved rain and wind to watch as the Maeslant barrier's two arc-shaped steel doors shut for the first time since its construction in the 1990s. The barrier closed the waterway that connects Rotterdam, Europe's biggest port, to the North Sea.

Rotterdam, a major transit point for oil, coal, grains and other commodities, was expected to stay shut to shipping for the rest of the day, affecting about 60 ships.

Britain's Met Office said north-westerly winds exceeding 50 mph were coinciding with low pressure and high tides to produce the exceptional conditions. The Thames Barrier which protects London from flooding was closed late on Thursday.

Weather experts had invoked images of the major floods of 1953 that killed more than 2,000 people in eastern England and the Netherlands, but a Dutch transport ministry spokesman said early on Friday the flood defenses seemed to have held.

Hundreds of oil and gas workers were airlifted from North Sea platforms, after forecasters predicted 20-metre (66 foot) waves and wind gusts of more than 100 km per hour (62 mph). On Friday production was starting up again.

The Dutch ministry spokesman said water levels had reached 3.16 meters above mean sea level in the southern Netherlands and subsided again but were now peaking in the north at 3.40 meters above sea level, with no flooding reported. Some southern barriers have already been opened.

The floods of 1953 saw Dutch waters rise to 3.85 meters (12 ft 7 inches) above sea level.

   1 2   


Top World News  
Today's Top News  
Most Commented/Read Stories in 48 Hours
乌拉特中旗| 平和县| 文登市| 罗江县| 陇川县| 抚州市| 阿荣旗| 葵青区| 祁东县| 泰顺县| 泽普县| 中山市| 宁安市| 米脂县| 南昌县| 西贡区| 岳阳市| 昆山市| 大理市| 桐城市| 祥云县| 台安县| 靖西县| 城市| 封丘县| 中西区| 上杭县| 姚安县| 洪洞县| 鄱阳县| 惠水县| 曲沃县| 芦溪县| 贺州市| 和政县| 北安市| 吉水县| 宜章县| 红河县| 瑞丽市| 绥德县|