Gales Pummel SW France, 1 Million Homes In Dark

Authorities called on residents of the southwest region to stay at home for their own safety. No casualties were reported.

Gales battered southwest France on Saturday, bringing down power lines and cutting electricity supplies to nearly one million homes, authorities said.

Winds of up to 173 km an hour (108 miles an hour) closed several airports, including Bordeaux, and halted rail traffic. Dozens of roads were blocked by fallen trees and debris.

Authorities called on residents of the southwest region to stay at home for their own safety. No casualties were reported.

"The number of clients who are cut off from the grid is rising from minute to minute as the storm moves eastwards," Michel Francony, president of power distributor Electricite Reseau Distribution France (ERDF), said on Europe 1 radio.

"There are close to one million clients cut off at this point," he said, adding that 1,000 ERDF workers had been mobilised to restore supplies but had trouble reaching affected areas because of blocked roads.

The weather drew comparisons with a huge storm in 1999, when nearly 4 million people were left without electricity and it took more than three weeks for ERDF to restore power to all clients. That storm killed 88 people in France.

Etienne Guyot, the prefect of the Landes administrative area on the southwestern Atlantic coast, said on France Info radio that winds of up to 173 km an hour had been measured on the coast and up to 140 km an hour in town of Mont de Marsan inland.