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28 Oct 2013

Four die as storms hit southern Britain

Four people are dead after high winds caused chaos in southern England and Wales. Elsewhere 200,000 homes are without power and travel is in chaos as the St Jude storm sweeps across to the continent.

Bethany Freeman, 17, pictured above, died after a tree fell on the caravan in which she was sleeping in Hever, near Edenbridge, in Kent. She was a sixth-form pupil at Tunbridge Wells Grammar School.

The second casualty of the storm was 51-year-old Donal Drohan, from Harrow, north-west London, pictured below, who was killed when a tree tree fell on the car he was driving in Watford just before 7am.

In west London, a man and a woman died when a house collapsed after a falling tree caused a gas explosion. Another two people were discharged from hospital after the explosion, and a third has burn injuries, a Scotland Yard spokesman said.

The storm is the worst to hit parts of Britain for years, and many travellers in southern England were affected by severe delays. All trains in and out of King;s Cross station were cancelled later in the morning, and many East Coast trains were delayed because of problems at Peterborough.

On top of the travel chaos, 580,000 homes across the south, the Midlands and the east of England were without power, said UK Energy Networks.

And the storm has even impacted what is happening at Westminster: all staff have been evacuated after a crane collapsed onto the Cabinet Office. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg had to postpone a press conference, saying it would be held “when there isn’t a crane on the roof and journalists travelling on the train are able to join us,” he tweeted.

The storm has been named after St Jude, the patron saint of lost causes and difficult cases, whose feast day is 28 October.

A teenage boy is also feared dead after being swept out to sea in Newhaven, East Sussex on Sunday.

Trains: National Rail said that “most routes” across central and southern England and Wales were affected by the weather.
Met Office: for the latest information about how different parts of the country are affected, go to the Met Office website.
London travel: There are severe and minor delays running on at least 10 underground lines, say Transport for London
Flights: Delays are expected at Heathrow airport. More info here.
Flooding: The Environment Agency has issued 12 flood warnings and over 130 flood alerts in the south west, Midlands and east of England. See the latest info here.

Watch the latest video from the St Jude storm here>

Travel chaos

Rail services across most of southern Britain have been cancelled or are running to amended timetables because of fears for passenger safety, debris on railway lines and damage to infrastructure.

Some services were completely cancelled throughout the mornng – including trains from Stansted and Gatwick airports. Network Rail advised passengers to allow extra time to reach their stations and to catch connecting trains because road conditions are also expected to be hazardous.

David Cameron was forced to defend preparations for the storm and insisted that authorities had done as much as they could. “Everyone has to act on the basis of the evidence that they are given,” he said, adding: “The emergency services, as ever, do a brilliant job.”

Transport for London (TfL) said there was disruption to six underground tube lines due to debris from the storm on the tracks: the Bakerloo, Central, Jubilee, Metropolitan, Northern and Piccadilly lines were all partially closed.

On the roads there are warnings of standing flood water across much of the south of the UK, as well as reports of trees coming down across roads.

Over 100 flights cancelled at London’s Heathrow Airport due to the storm, and ferry crossing have also been delayed.

#UKStorm2013

99mph winds

The Met Office said that wind reached more than 99mph on the Isle of Wight at 5am and the environment agency issued 14 flood warnings for the south west, as well as 146 flood alerts for the rest of England and Wales. This was reduced throughout the day, as the storm blew away over Norfolk and across the continent.

Despite the bad weather, transport union chief Bob Crow said that the rush-hour transport problems were down to reduced staff numbers: “Since the last big storm in 1987 the rail network has axed over 2,000 engineering staff and has hacked back investment in drainage, embankments and tree clearance.”

However Network Rail said it was impossible to run services in hurricane-force winds and that “lives would have been put at risk” if trains had operated.

Theo Harcourt, 13, jumps over a fallen tree as he makes his way to school in Islington, north London

Photo: Theo Harcourt, 13, jumps over a fallen tree as he makes his way to school in Islington, north London