Splash on New Year; storm hits western France causing 65000 houses powerless

Paris, January 2: New Year Celebration was splashed in France as winter storm Carmen hit Country's Atlantic coast left 65,000 households without electricity. The storm, packing winds of up to 150km per hour, also caused other damage in the northwestern Brittany region, including destroying a windmill.

Enedis, a unit of French state-controlled electric distribution company, said in a statement the storm was now moving to the regions of Poitou-Charente, Pays de Loire and Aquitaine. Weather service Meteo France kept the French Atlantic coast areas south of Brittany on orange alert but downgraded the threat level in most other areas of western France.

 

Earlier on Monday, some 40,000 households in the Brittany region experienced power cuts but 30,000 have now been reconnected said Enedis, which has mobilized 1,500 staff to restore fix power lines.

Winds with speeds of up to 140 kilometres per hour battered the country’s Atlantic coast in mid-afternoon but no serious damage was reported.

Enedis said on Twitter that its employees were on the scene trying to reconnect homes to the power grid as quickly as possible. The storm was expected to affect adjacent areas of France later in the day.