Heavy rain, snow and howling winds hit Iceland yesterday evening leading to travel chaos — including over a thousand passengers waiting on the tarmac unable to alight international flights.
Ten planes were stranded at Keflavik International Airport yesterday evening as high winds prevented arriving aircraft from docking with walkways. It was even too windy to safely unload passengers with old-fashioned stairs. Delayed flights began again around 22.00 and all stranded arriving passengers made it into the terminal by 22.30, DV reports.
Parts of the country are still fairly windy today; but the weather is generally much gentler. The coming days are set to be mild with light winds, but rain showers.
All of Iceland’s rescue teams were called out during the storm to deal with incidents including roof tiles blowing away and stranded drivers. The Route 1 highway was closed in several places in West Iceland and hundreds of people had to sleep rough in schools and service stations.
There were several power cuts in the Westfjords, including a long one this morning as engineers worked to repair damaged lines.
Reykjavik residents were also treated to the unusual spectacle of thunder and lightning this morning.
(Photo for illustration purposes only: not taken today)