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09-12-2024
LONDON: Millions of Britons have been warned to brace for further disruption as more strong winds are set to sweep across the UK following Storm Darragh.
Northern Ireland was exposed to wind gusts of up to 80mph overnight, while a Met Office yellow wind warning came into force across much of England and Wales at 6am. More widely, there are likely to be gusts of 35-45mph inland, even reaching 70mph around coasts during the morning.
It means that further travel disruption and power cuts are likely until 6pm, the Met Office said.
Storm Darragh brought gusts of 93mph to some parts of the country on Saturday, with millions warned to stay indoors, tens of thousands left without power and trains cancelled.
The Met Office said heavy rain was expected to persist in central and eastern parts of England throughout Sunday, with 20-25mm forecast to fall across much of the country. As much as 60mm could fall over high ground of the Cheviots, Pennines and North York Moors.
Two men were killed on Saturday by falling trees hitting their vehicles. West Midlands police said the latest victim was killed when a tree fell and hit his car on Silver Birch Road, Erdington, on Saturday afternoon. Earlier in the day, a man died after a tree fell on to his van in Lancashire.
The government’s “risk to life” alert came into effect at 1am on Saturday and was sent to people within the area covered by the Met Office’s rare red warning for wind in parts of Wales and south-west England.
Energy Networks Association said 259,000 customers across England, Scotland and Wales were without power as of Saturday evening. It said that 80% of homes affected by the storm have been reconnected.
The Environment Agency had 64 flood warnings in place in England on Sunday morning, meaning flooding is expected, while Natural Resources Wales said 25 flood warnings were active.
James Woodbine was woken up by Storm Darragh at 5am, roughly the time the power cut began. His 300-year-old cottage is at the top of a hill in Trofarth in north Wales where yesterday’s winds were fiercest, measured at 93mph nearby in Capel Curig.
“The noise was the strangest thing,” Woodbine said. “There was a thrum coming from the ground, a rumble going through the building whenever there was a gust. I’ve never heard that before. I’ve been here for 30 years, and we had Storm Doris come through in 2017. But this is far worse. I’ve never seen a storm like it.”
Woodbine is one of the hundreds of thousands of people across Britain and Ireland who were affected by Storm Darragh, which was so serious that the Met Office issued a red wind warning, alerting people of the threat to life only the 19th since 2011.
One man in his 40s died after a tree fell on his van as he was driving along a dual carriageway section of the A59 in Longton, near Preston. Another man died when a tree fell and hit his car in Birmingham yesterday afternoon. At 3am, as winds were gathering pace, a Translink airport express bus left the road and hit a wall near Antrim in Northern Ireland, and the driver was taken to hospital.
The government reinforced the warning with a siren alert sent to 3m phones in Wales and south-west England on Friday evening, and on Saturday Dyfed-Powys police declared a major incident over the volume of calls about uprooted trees and other hazards. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
