Multiple carnival tents evacuated due to snowfall
In several locations in Limburg, emergency services evacuated Carnival party tents on Sunday evening because their roofs had become too heavy under a blanket of snow. This happened in at least Heerlen, Kerkrade, and Sittard, a fire brigade spokesperson told ANP.
In Heerlen, the fire brigade evacuated the Carnival tent on Pancratiusplein at around 8:00 p.m. Two hours later, the tent’s canvas tore under the weight of the snow. No one got hurt, NOS reported.
In Kerkrade, emergency services evacuated the tent on the Markt at around 8:00 p.m. The tents in Kerkrade-West and near Eygelshoven were also evacuated, De Limburger wrote.
The winter weather also halted the carnival parade in Hulst on Sunday afternoon. As a result, 12 large carnival floats spent the night in the city center. “The lead float skidded and couldn’t get going again,” Rob Lambert of the float-building association De Neuters told Omroep Zeeland. “It’s a truly bizarre sight, 12 of those large floats in the snow. We’ve never seen anything like this before.”
Most people celebrating Carnival on Sunday were properly dressed for the cold, according to the Red Cross. Early in the evening, the aid organization saw a few more people at first-aid stations with mild hypothermia, but there were no large numbers, a spokesperson monitoring the situation in Eindhoven, Helmond, Oss, and other locations in eastern Noord-Brabant told ANP.
“We saw during the day that most people were dressed appropriately. It’s a friendly celebration, and people are looking out for each other,” the spokesperson said. The cold weather was expected, and the first aid stations were well prepared. “The stations were heated, and there were blankets, so people could warm up quickly.”
