Fire crews across Wallonia responded to hundreds of incidents on Friday and Saturday as Storm Austen brought strong winds that felled trees, damaged roofs and disrupted power lines.
In Namur province, the emergency services carried out nearly 300 call-outs. The Dinaphi zone, covering Dinant and Philippeville, and the NAGE zone, covering Namur, Andenne, Gembloux and Eghezée, handled about 100 incidents, while the Val de Sambre zone dealt with around 30.
The damage in Namur was caused mainly by powerful gusts of wind. Trees fell on to roads and electricity cables, in some cases bringing down power poles, while roofs were also damaged.
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In Luxembourg province, firefighters were called out almost 300 times between Friday morning and Saturday morning, according to provincial fire commander Stéphane Thiry. The storm affected the whole province, from Marche-en-Famenne to Vielsalm.
As in Namur, most incidents in Luxembourg involved fallen trees blocking roads or landing on electricity cables. Firefighters also secured damaged roofs and pumped water from flooded cellars.
In Walloon Brabant, the fire service carried out about 100 interventions from Friday afternoon onwards. Most involved broken branches, branches caught on power lines and uprooted trees.
A few roof tiles were blown loose in Walloon Brabant, but no roofs were blown away and no injuries were reported. Firefighters were still responding to around 10 incidents on Saturday morning.
In the Hainaut-East emergency zone, firefighters dealt with about 60 incidents from Friday morning. Their work mainly involved clearing debris, broken branches and other hazardous objects.
A small number of further call-outs were still being recorded there on Saturday morning.
