Hurricane Emma

written in march 2008

A British ski holiday-maker was one of 13 people killed by Hurricane Emma, a storm that battered Europe in the beginning of March.

Mark Huddlestone, a 47-year old father from Widnes, Cheshire, died in a freak accident while he was on the way to his hotel in Austria. The 150mph wind caused an avalanche that had ripped through trees and sent one of the rocks crashing onto the roof of the taxi he was travelling in. Huddlestone left a wife and two sons, Andy aged 15, and Tim aged 11.

Andy thanked the hotels’ staff for their support and wrote on their website: “Unfortunately, this was a freak accident nobody could have prevented.” The British owner of the hotel, Steve Woods, knew Huddlestone as he used to go on holiday in that area for the past 15 years and referred to him as a friend. “He was far more than a guest; he was like part of the family. He was a great family man - all he was about was his wife and his kids,” Woods said.

Three other people lost their lives this Saturday in Austria, but also Poland, Germany and the Czech Republic reported casualties. An 11-year old girl was hit by a falling tree north of Prague and an 80-year old priest was struck by flying metal sheets in the country’s capital, Reuters reported. At least four Germans were killed, all of them dying in their car. A 58-year old man was killed when a tree fell down on his car, the other three lost the control over their vehicles.
In Poland two men also lost their lives in their cars. The German meteorologist Helmut Malewski said: “We had great luck that the storm fell on a Saturday morning.”[N-TV] On a working day more people would have been on their way to work.

The violent storm ripped off roofs, tore out site fences and road signs, blocked streets and caused hindrance to the holiday traffic. Hundreds of thousands were left without electricity and the North of Germany suffered from storm tides.
According to Reuters, Hurricane Emma caused a damage of €1m, less than expected.
“We have overestimated the first part of the storm during the night,” Rüdiger Hartig, representative of the German weather service, said.
A representative of the railway service Deutsche Bahn announced: “The storm [Emma] was not comparable [to Kyrill] in duration and in intensity.”

Even though Emma’s overall damage was less than the one Hurricane Kyrill caused, the recent storm had a much bigger effect in some places, as reported from the Applied Insurance Research (AIR). The damage of affected buildings turned out to be worse than through Kyrill. The most frequent damages were blown off tiles.
Last year’s Hurricane Kyrill burdened the insurance market with a loss of €4.5billion, £350m in England.

Kyrill roared through Europe in January 2007, killing at least 47 people, 11 in England alone. The fatalities occurred through car accidents, building collapses, building debris and falling trees. The storm moved across the Atlantic Ocean towards Ireland and the UK at the evening of 17 January. It then crossed the North Sea reaching Germany and Denmark on the 18 January moving further towards Eastern Europe.
Kyrill was a European windstorm, an usual natural phenomenon in the winter months. It is normally moving towards Norway but can sometimes affect countries such as the United Kingdom, the Netherlands,Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Czech Republicand Poland.

Storms as Emma and Kyrill come right after the highest cause of global natural catastrophe insurance loss, the U.S. hurricanes. Experts explain the increase of violent storms on the northern hemisphere with the change of the wind direction over the Atlantic Ocean.

The German meteorologist Karl Bumke stated that violent storms will increase in the future but he refused to link the hurricanes to global warming. He said violent storms have always existed. European windstorms develop when the cold air from Canada and the hot air coming from the Bermudas meet at the North Atlantic.