U3 Part2 B

Part 2. B-C
  
 Nine hours Greenwich Mean Time. The news read by Wendy Gordon. The worst of the heavy rains and thunderstorms that have been sweeping parts of Europe during the past week appears to be over. Exceptionally heavy rainfall brought flooding to many parts of Germany, Switzerland, Northern Italy and France and chaos to rail and road transport. Air traffic too has been affected with flight delays at airports. Although most flights are expected to be back to normal by this time tomorrow, there are expected to be serious delays on the German and Italian motorways over the forthcoming holiday weekend and train services are unlikely to be normalized for several days. A government spokeswoman in France announced that the damage to homes and property is expected to be at least four thousand million francs. It is reported that at least five people have lost their lives. Experts agree that casualty figures are low because emergency warnings were issued on the day before the storms began. The federal government in Switzerland has urged motorists and rail travelers not to travel during the next few days and no international traffic will be allowed on the main north-south motorway routes across the country until next Tuesday.