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Europe braces for ‘Cyril’

Rice cut her visit to Berlin short in order to leave for London before winds worsened, as the storm was expected to intensify throughout on Thursday.

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AMSTERDAM: Northern Europe was buffeted by an unusually strong storm on Thursday that killed at least one person, disrupted the schedule of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and wreaked transportation havoc in the air, on land and at sea.

Rice cut her visit to Berlin short in order to leave for London before winds worsened, as the storm dubbed “Cyril” was expected to intensify throughout on Thursday. “Our country has not had a storm like this in years,” the Netherlands’ Royal Weather Service said in a bulletin.  The service compared Thursday’s gale to a 1990 storm that peaked during the afternoon commute and killed 17. It reported heavy rain and recorded gusts of 130 kilometres per hour.

The first fatality Thursday was reported in Shropshire, England, where a 54-year-old man was crushed in his car by a falling branch, according to a local ambulance service.

Rice cancelled an interview with German television after meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel to be flown to a meeting with British PM Tony Blair. The top US diplomat was in Europe to discuss Mideast peacemaking efforts.

London’s Heathrow Airport, Europe’s largest, cancelled 123 flights. Other major airports including Frankfurt, Munich, Amsterdam and Vienna reported delays and cancellations. 

Ferries were cancelled or delayed in Britain, Ireland, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Finland — where minor floods were reported near Helsinki.

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