Cleanup Begins After Europe Storm; 94 Dead

Crews scrambled to restore power to a million homes and clear toppled cars from cluttered highways Friday after a fierce storm flayed Western Europe with hurricane-force winds, killing more than 90.

The storm, which paralyzed transportation and cut off communications in six nations, finally blew out into the Baltic Sea on Friday. It sank a Danish ship and left behind an estimated $1 billion in destruction.

Official reports showed 94 dead and hundreds injured. The dead included 46 in Britain, 19 in Holland, 8 in France, 10 in Belgium, 4 in Denmark and 7 in West Germany.

The storm Thursday spawned winds of up to 110 m.p.h. It tore a hole in the roof of Parliament in London, toppled the chimney of a nuclear-power plant in France and smashed $29 million worth of greenhouses in Holland.

With winds reduced but still at gale force, the storm moved Friday along the Baltic, striking Scandinavia, northern Poland and the Soviet republics of Latvia and Lithuania, Britain’s meteorological center said.

Hardest hit was Britain, where 46 people were reported killed by collapsing roofs, falling trees and traffic accidents. The death toll was more than twice that of Oct. 16, 1987, when the country’s worst storm in centuries left 17 dead.

On Friday, roof tiles, scaffolding and heaps of brick from collapsed chimneys littered sidewalks around London. The government said that at one point 1 million people, mostly in western England, were without electric power.

Subway, rail, bus and air services were halted in the London area Thursday. However, transport workers were able to restore much of the rail service by Friday.

Ferry service across the English Channel was restored Friday morning, as was service between Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The storm struck a large area of West Germany, from Hamburg in the north, where streets were flooded, to Bavaria in the south. Several people in Rostock, East Germany, were injured when a church collapsed.