Europe in fire and water onslaught

Billions of dollars in damage has been wreaked by freak weather across Europe in the past week.

The death toll from the heat, fires, floods and storms has mounted to the high hundreds, with many thousands more made homeless or having their lives disrupted by weather conditions that have smashed records in many countries across the continent.

Agriculture and tourism have been particularly badly hit, with crops scorched in some areas, waterlogged in others, and tourists forced to flee fires in the south and storms and torrential downpours in northern countries. Electricity blackouts and water shortages caused by fire and flood and affecting hundreds of thousands of households and businesses have compounded the chaos.

In Greece, temperatures have reached 43°C, compared with an average for the time of year of about 35°C, and widespread forest fires have brought chaos. Black-outs have exacerbated the problem.

Seven Greek passenger trains were halted on the tracks for several hours during a black-out on Tuesday. On Thursday, the government told civil servants to go home early in a desperate attempt to cut demand for electricity.

Tourists across the south-eastern part of Europe have faced severe disruption to their holiday plans, with hotels evacuated in fire-stricken areas and some roads rendered too dangerous to travel.

Hundreds of deaths in the region have also been attributed to heatstroke. Though Greece has managed largely to avoid such problems by opening air-conditioned clubs where the elderly can rest, in Hungary officials said about 500 people, mostly elderly, were thought to have died. Romania also reported people collapsing in the street, with at least 27 people thought to have died from heatstroke.
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