Britain's Storm Eunice Among Worst In Decades

Maybe I shouldn't make light of a dangerous storm, but from
my safe perch I can't resist. A storm named Eunice with
as much destruction and danger in Europe as the old
Carol Burnett character's bitterness and emotional upheaval.  

Storms regularly slam the British Isles in the winter, but they just had a one-two punch few people will really remember.  

It was bad enough with the first storm Dudley (They name winter storms in the UK, sometimes with in my opinion amusing monikers). 

The storm brought winds of up to 87 mph in Wales. Then Dudley moved on to Germany and Denmark, where it caused additional serious damage and four deaths. 

Then, Friday, Eunice hit.  This storm is regarded among the strongest, if not the strongest in at least 30 years.

To give a sense of how strong Eunice was, a gust of 122 mph was reported on Isle of Wight, which is provisionally the highest wind gust in UK history  

The Met Office, which is the UK equivalent of the National Weather Service, issued rare red weather warnings in southern and eastern England, and parts of Wales.  Red warnings means there's a danger to life.

The warnings were a good idea. As it is, nine people have reported dead from the storm in Europe. 

London Mayer Sadiq  Khan urged residents to stay home, as flying debris and falling trees would make it dangerous to be outdoors. 

 The Port of Dover has been closed to all shipping, hundreds of flights are canceled as is rail transportation, because fallen trees are clogging rail lines the BBC reports. 

Part of the roof of the O2 Arena in London was shredded.  Scores of roofs came off homes and businesses, mostly in the southern half of England. 

CNN reported that police in Cornwall and Devon received large numbers of calls about flying debris, collapsed roofs and fallen trees. 

After finishing with Great Britain, Eunice moved on to the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and Sweden, causing more destruction. 

 Videos: A large tree falls in the town of Bude, Devon during storm Eunice:

Although this next video has the same tree blowing over, it also has other scenes from the high winds that are worth watching: 

The storm really slammed into the coast at Cornwall. Watch this drama: