From Amsterdam to Munich, Friederike uproots European life

A tree is lying on the tracks in the western German region of Westphalia, which was one of the hardest hit by Friederike.

People held onto each other in the western city of Cologne as they struggle during heavy winds.

Friederike caused several buses to flip onto their sides - this accident happened near the western city of Bonn.

Uprooted trees and branches injured and, in some cases, killed people as Friederike tore through western Europe.

People were kept away from Cologne's iconic cathedral on Thursday as authorities were concerned gusts of wind could blow pieces of stone from the building's facade.

Train travelers in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia didn't get to watch the landscape slide past on Thursday afternoon. Rail travel was also halted across the Netherlands.

Some drivers defied warnings and attempted to navigate the snow and winds in Hamburg, Germany's northernmost major city.

Schools sat shuttered in the Lower Saxony region of Oberharz as snows from Friederike piled up outside.

Friederike's winds and rain were strongest in northwestern Germany and the neighboring Netherlands and Belgium. However, the storm left deep snow in the Black Forest and across the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg.

Friederike is the biggest storm to hit Germany and the region since October's Xavier, which shuttered transit stations and tore trees right out of the ground — and sometimes both at once — in Berlin.