One dead and one missing after Storm Boelo hits NL

One person has died and one is missing after Storm Boelo rolled across the Netherlands over the weekend from the North Sea. The storm forced mass flight cancellations at Schiphol and wreaked havoc across the coastlines.

The KNMI issued a code yellow weather warning for high winds, which reached gale force 9 on Sunday, rising up to 115km per hour in some places, such as IJmuiden. It marks the year’s first official named storm.

One man was killed by a falling tree in Amsterdam Nieuw-West, and a water sports player went missing off the coast of Scheveningen. Rescue efforts were suspended due to the weather and resumed on Monday morning.

On the island of Texel, Oudeschild harbour flooded on Sunday evening as the seawater broke over the quays. Wind gusts were recorded at up to 90km per hour around the Wadden Islands.

Rain caused local flooding in The Hague and Voorhout, while fallen trees caused disruption in Katwijk, Delft, ‘s-Gravenzande and Rijswijk.

A number of roads throughout the country were also closed off to protect traffic from debris. The N207 near Alphen aan den Rijn was closed in both directions after multiple trees came down, and the N33 between Appingedam and Siddeburen in Groningen was closed in both directions as a precaution.

Two people in the UK were also killed by storm Boelo by falling trees, one in London and one in Scotland. Widespread damage was also recorded throughout Britain.