Reuters reported that an Enedis tally listed 161,000 customers without electricity in France by 1 a.m. ET (7 a.m. CEST) Friday, including 128,000 in Brittany. Enedis’ later statement described widespread outages but did not repeat the total.
In that update, the French electricity distributor named Brittany, Normandy, Pays de la Loire and Hauts-de-France among the areas most affected. It said more than 2,000 employees and contractors were prepared to respond, while several hundred technicians were being sent to the hardest-hit areas. Crews would enter when weather and road conditions allowed them to work safely.
Météo-France, the national weather service, listed a 129 km/h overnight gust at Plovan, excluding readings from semaphore stations. It forecast winds above 100 km/h in parts of the northwest and gusts of 120-130 km/h or higher along parts of the English Channel coast. The agency called Austen France’s first autumn storm.
SNCF TER Bretagne reported interruptions on routes linking Brest with Saint-Brieuc, Quimper with Brest, Rennes with Nantes, and Guingamp with Paimpol. It also warned passengers to expect possible delays and cancellations on other lines.
National Grid outage information showed more than 31,000 homes without power in southwest England Friday, as EconoTimes reported in its coverage of UK outages. Météo-France expected winds to weaken as Friday evening progressed and forecast a separate system bringing locally heavy rain to northwestern France on Saturday.
