Huge waves crash in the port of Wimereux, northern France. Countries across Europe were counting the cost of a devastating storm that killed at least 40 people and left widespread damage and disruption to travel and power supplies.(AFP/Philippe Huguen)

Europe mops up after storm kills 46

BERLIN (AP) — Europeans labored on Friday to restore services across the continent after hurricane-force winds toppled trees, brought down power lines and damaged buildings, killing at least 46 people and disrupting travel for tens of thousands.

Berlin's new main train station was shut down after a two-ton girder fell from the side of the glass facade onto an outdoor staircase. The station was evacuated after the beam plummeted 130 feet on Thursday night, but there were no injuries and the building was reopened Friday afternoon.

"I can see maybe the glass falling, but not the steel," said 38-year-old electrician Thomas Mueller, who had stopped to survey the damage. "They just built this thing eight months ago."

Virtually the entire German national railway system was shut down during the storm, with trees over many tracks and overhead power lines down. Services were being restored gradually on Friday.

"We've never had such a situation in Germany," Deutsche Bahn CEO Hartmut Mehdorn said.

Off the coast of France, a coast guard tug was called to tow a damaged British container ship containing explosive materials to safety, a day after its crew of 26 was rescued from stormy seas.

More than 1 million homes had no electricity in the Czech Republic, which was hit by winds of up to 112 mph. A million households in Germany suffered blackouts and tens of thousands of homes in Poland and Austria also were hit.

The storm led to the deaths of at least three people in the Czech Republic, 12 in Germany, 14 in Britain, six in the Netherlands, three in France, two in Belgium and six in Poland.

It was the highest death toll from a storm in Europe since 1999 when gales downed trees and driving snow brought on avalanches, killing more than 120 people.

Climate researchers had been predicting stormy weather this year for parts of Europe, saying that unusually high temperatures in the North Atlantic — around 1 to 2 degrees Fahrenheit above normal — would allow winds to accumulate more moisture and surge in energy.

"In times of rapid climactic change, extreme events arise more frequently," said Peter Werner, of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Research.

Europe has been experiencing an extremely warm winter and has already been hit by several storms.

"If we don't get climate change under control, winter's just going to get worse," said Joern Ehlers, spokesman for the World Wide Fund For Nature.

Most of the people killed in the storm were motorists, but in Germany they also included two firefighters — one hit by a falling tree and the other dying of a heart attack — and an 18-month old child in Munich hit by a terrace door that was ripped from its hinges.

In London, a toddler was killed when a brick wall collapsed on him.

As winds calmed Friday, airports reported some delays and cancellations but were returning to normal.

Frankfurt Airport reported that flights were departing normally after some morning delays and 200 cancellations on Thursday.

German national airline Lufthansa canceled 331 internal flights on Thursday, affecting nearly 19,000 passengers. Intercontinental flights were largely on time on Friday, spokesman Thomas Jachnow said.

British Airways canceled 34 incoming flights to London's Heathrow and Gatwick airports and the two main London to Scotland rail routes ran much-reduced services.

Eurostar was running a full service again, after one early Paris-to-London train was canceled. Meanwhile, London Bridge station was reopened after being closed after part of its forecourt roof collapsed.

British train companies warned of delays through the day as repairs were carried out.

Thousands of Dutch commuters were stranded overnight when the railroad service suspended all trains because of obstructions to the tracks and downed power cables.

By early Friday, trains were running again in most of the country after engineers worked through the night to clear tracks and repair the power cables, Prorail, the company that manages Dutch railroads, said.

In Germany, subways, trams and buses were largely back in service, but only a few long-distance trains were running.

"Bringing the service back is like a puzzle — it goes bit by bit and we're now at the first pieces," railway spokesman Martin Walden said.

Track-clearing work was expected to last at least through the day, and passengers were advised to cancel all unnecessary trips.

The German Weather Service said the storm was the strongest to hit the country since 1999. The highest winds were felt in the southern state of Bavaria, where gusts of up to 126 mph were recorded.

Weather service meteorologist Olaf Pels Leusden said the storm was slightly stronger than one in 2002 that registered winds of 114 mph and weaker than a deadly 1999 storm that had wind speeds of 161 mph.

Schools around much of Germany, which had closed early on Thursday, resumed classes, although some remained shut because of problems transporting children.

Winter weather to strike Okla., Mo. — again

MUSKOGEE, Okla. - Still recovering from snow and ice storms that downed power lines and trees in a large swath of the country, residents of Oklahoma, Missouri and Texas braced for another round Friday.

With thousands of customers in Oklahoma still without power, Gov. Brad Henry on Thursday requested a major federal disaster declaration, which would make people in hard-hit counties eligible for housing grants and low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses. He had already declared a state of emergency.

“Unfortunately, the worst may not be over,” Henry said.

Much of Oklahoma and parts of Missouri were forecast to get 6 inches of snow from Friday to Sunday, even as utilities worked to restore electricity to more than 164,000 customers who lost it in the last storm.

In eastern Oklahoma, ice snapped hundreds of power poles and transmission lines. More than 57,000 customers statewide remained without power late Thursday, six days after freezing rain began to fall, and more than 1,000 people remained in shelters and many schools remained closed.

'Like Godzilla came through'
Mike Mackey, 47, who has been staying in an American Red Cross shelter in Muskogee with his wife and son, said the crushing weight of ice broke trees throughout his neighborhood.

“It looks like Godzilla came through there and just stomped them all down,” he said.

At least 70 deaths related to winter weather have been reported in nine states in the past week, including 23 in Oklahoma and 12 each in Texas and Missouri.

In Texas, the wintry weather forecast Friday was expected to be less severe than the pelting of snow and freezing rain that paralyzed much of the state this week.

San Antonio, Austin and Houston, which saw rare icy conditions during the last storm, were expected to avoid the worst of the incoming storm, even as El Paso officials announced county offices would be closed Friday. Freezing weather also was expected in northern parts of the state, including Dallas.

The rare spate of icy weather has led hard-hit areas to scramble for sand and de-icing chemicals. Stocks will be rationed in far West Texas this weekend, said Blanca Del Valle, a Texas Department of Transportation spokeswoman.

In other parts of the state, bridges and overpasses will probably get the highest priority, but icy roads that would normally get treatment might not if supplies are in question, department spokesman Randy Ormsby said.

“It’s a problem we’ve never seen before,” he said. “We typically don’t go through this much ice and snow statewide.”

Texas airports largely grounded by freezing rain earlier this week resumed mostly normal schedules Thursday. Formerly ice-slicked roads also reopened, including a 300-mile stretch of Interstate 10 from Fort Stockton to San Antonio that had been shut down since Tuesday.

In Missouri, particularly in the state’s southwest section, more than 108,000 homes and businesses were still without power Thursday, the State Emergency Management Office said.

Along with the fatalities in Oklahoma, Texas and Missouri, the wave of storms was blamed for eight deaths in Iowa, four each in New York and Michigan, three in Arkansas, two in North Carolina and one each in Maine and Indiana.

Fires ravage southern Australia

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) -- Wildfires destroyed eight houses and cut electricity lines in southern Australia, plunging much of Victoria state into chaos as hundreds of thousands were left without power, a fire official said Wednesday.

A fire caused by a lightening strike west of the capital, Melbourne, destroyed one home late Tuesday, while seven others were razed in a massive blaze that has blackened 27,000 hectares (66,717 acres) in the state's northeast, according to Pat Groenhout, a Victoria state emergency spokesman.

There were no immediate reports of injuries.

Lightning strikes started several other blazes late Tuesday, and were expected to spark other fires amid soaring temperatures predicted throughout the weekend, Groenhout said.

The northeast fire also cut a main electricity circuit on Tuesday, plunging some 200,000 homes and businesses into darkness and affecting hundreds of traffic signals and suburban train services. Several people were caught in elevators when power went out in some buildings and had to be rescued, said Metropolitan Ambulance Service spokesman Phil Cullen.

The power was restored early Wednesday, but Victoria's Premier Steve Bracks urged residents to conserve electricity as temperatures were set to exceed 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) this week.

"This is the worst bush fire conditions we have ever had in Victoria's history because it is going to go on and it is going to get worse," Bracks told reporters Wednesday. "We have never encountered this in Victoria before."

Over 10,000 square kilometers (3,861 square miles) of Victorian forest and ranch land has been destroyed since the start of the southern hemisphere summer, when soaring temperatures and gusty winds often combine to spur the sometimes deadly blazes.

Nine people died in fires on South Australia state's Eyre Peninsula in January 2005. Eight of them died in their cars as they tried to flee the approaching blaze.

In January 2003, more than 500 houses were destroyed and four people killed when a huge fire tore through the national capital of Canberra.

Malaysia red-faced over mistaken tsunami warning

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Malaysian authorities mistakenly issued a tsunami warning on Friday, and their embarrassment only deepened when beachgoers failed to receive it.

"It's a technical glitch. The system broke down and it issued an old warning to everyone including the media," said the science minister's press secretary, Ainon Mohd.

"We are asking the press to ignore the warning," she said.

But one local media group had already issued the warning twice via its nationwide text-message service. The warning came from the meteorological department, part of the science ministry.

But beachgoers on the resort island of Penang, hit by the devastating Asian tsunami in 2004, were blissfully unaware.

"We did not get any reports of a tsunami here. Our guests are not disturbed, they are enjoying themselves," said an executive at the Parkroyal hotel on Penang's famed Batu Ferringhi coast.

Friday's warning said a strong earthquake in northern Sumatra could cause a tsunami in the northern states of Kedah, Perlis and Penang and warned people to stay off the beach.

The government set up its own tsunami alert system after the Asian tsunami on Dec. 26, 2004, which killed more than 230,000 people in a dozen countries, including Malaysia.

A Pacific-wide tsunami drill held last May found glitches in the regional alert network, including a faulty fax machine in Malaysia.