Storm Goretti Kills Man in England, Leaves Thousands Without Power Across Europe

A man was killed in England after a tree fell onto a caravan during record winds brought by Storm Goretti, as nearly 100,000 homes in France remained without electricity on Saturday.

At least 15 people have died in weather-related incidents across Europe this week as powerful storms and gale-force winds disrupted travel, shut schools, and cut power to hundreds of thousands amid freezing conditions.

Storm Goretti swept through southwestern Cornwall and parts of Wales overnight from Thursday to Friday, with wind gusts reaching up to 160 kilometres per hour (100 miles per hour). The storm uprooted trees and left tens of thousands of homes without power.

UK police said a man in his 50s was found dead on Friday in the town of Helston, Cornwall, after a tree crashed onto a caravan. “Tragically, a man aged in his 50s was located deceased within the caravan,” Devon and Cornwall Police said in a statement.

Much of the UK remained under weather warnings for snow and ice on Saturday, according to the Met Office, which cautioned that black ice could cause significant disruption, particularly in Scotland and northern England.

Heavy snowfall combined with storm conditions forced the closure of around 250 schools across Scotland for much of the first week following the Christmas break. Meanwhile, about 28,000 homes were still without power at the start of the weekend in southwestern England and the Midlands, network operator National Grid said.

The storm system also battered northern Europe. In France, close to 100,000 households were still without electricity on Saturday morning.

In Germany, long-distance rail services began to resume slowly on Saturday after being completely suspended on Friday due to a separate storm named Elli, rail operator Deutsche Bahn said. The northern port city of Hamburg, which was hit by heavy snowfall, remained particularly affected by disruptions.

Several rail routes were still not operating, including connections from Hamburg to Copenhagen, Amsterdam and Hanover. Services linking Hamburg with the western Ruhr region and Berlin were expected to be restored gradually over the course of Saturday.