France Needs Weeks to Fix Storm-Related Outages

French officials said Monday that it would take weeks to finish reconnecting electricity and telephones across the country after a pair of storms a week ago that were described as the worst in centuries.

Preliminary estimates put damage done by the successive winter gales that hit the north of France on Dec. 26 and the south a day later at a minimum of $4 billion. Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, an eminent historian, wrote in Le Figaro newspaper Monday that there was no record of such a devastating natural event in France since the 17th century and the days of Cardinal Richelieu and, later, Louis XIV.

Eighty-eight people were killed. More than 3.5 million households lost power as high-tension lines and power pylons crumpled in the fierce winds. As of midday Monday, more than 412,000 households were still without electricity, and 400,000 had no telephone service.

The winds were so powerful that trees nationwide were knocked down like matchsticks. In the Paris region, more than 1 million trees, including some centuries old in the park of the palace at Versailles, were felled.

Officials cautioned Monday that it will take weeks before electric service is completely back to normal, and they put the cost of repairs at almost $2.6 billion.

Downed telephone lines meant half a million French households were unable to make traditional New Year’s calls to family and friends. Though 100,000 subscribers were reconnected by Monday morning, Michel Bon, president and chief executive officer of France Telecom, said it would take three to four more weeks to get phone service back to normal.

Also, leaking oil from the tanker Erika, which broke up in heavy seas and sank Dec. 12 off Brittany, continued to foul stretches of the Atlantic coast. Officials said 18,000 to 20,000 tons of fuel oil remained in the sunken ship’s tanks.

Some of the French spent New Year’s weekend on beaches stretching from the administrative district of Finistere in the northwest to that of Charente-Maritime along the west-central coast removing gummy petroleum residue.

Some well-known monuments, including Notre Dame cathedral and the Sainte-Chapelle with its stained-glass windows, both in Paris, and the Versailles palace itself, were damaged by the winds but not seriously. However, the Culture Ministry said immediate repairs to monuments nationwide will cost $61 million.

Transport Minister Jean-Claude Gayssot estimated that the storms and resultant flooding had done $380 million in damage to roads, ports and airports. Rail traffic was also paralyzed in many regions, but the national railroad company said service was 95% restored as of Monday morning.

About 80 schools, some of whose roofs were peeled off by the winds, were not expected to reopen as scheduled today, including 50 in the Paris region, officials said.