Storm Doris ‘weather bomb’ brings death and travel chaos
Woman is killed by flying debris and school roof collapses in 100mph winds and snow blizzards
A WOMAN was killed and a schoolgirl left with life-threatening injuries yesterday as Storm Doris lashed Britain with a “weather bomb” of 100mph winds and blizzard-like snow.
Flights were cancelled, a port closed to shipping and people injured in chaos on the roads. The Met Office said the disruption would continue today and it has issued a yellow severe weather warning for ice covering the north of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
The storm’s fatal victim died after being hit in the head by a piece of roof in Wolverhampton.
Parts of the city centre had to be sealed off as paramedics tried to help the 29-year-old woman. However ,West Midlands Ambulance service later said she was declared dead at the scene.
Witness Rebecca Davis, a 40-yearold teacher from the city, described the piece of flying debris as “about the size of a coffee table”.
Last night, thousands of commuters were left stranded after routes were closed. Services from London Euston were suspended and overcrowding led to the station being evacuated for some time. King’s Cross and St Pancras stations were at a complete standstill for a period. Virgin Trains said services on both the east coast and west coast were severely disrupted, in part due to an electricity failure north of Crewe. Last night Virgin said it was aiming to return to a full service today.
In Milton Keynes, two children were injured, one severely, when part of the ceiling of a school sports hall collapsed, believed to be because of the weather. Around 40 people were in the hall at Southwood Middle School in Conni-burrow when the ceiling collapsed at 3.30pm. The badly injured girl was taken to hospital and the other child was treated on site.
Acting Superintendent Vince Grey of Thames Valley Police said: “Our thoughts are with the child and their family at this extremely difficult time.
“The area was evacuated following the partial collapse of the ceiling.
“It is possible that the collapse of the ceiling was caused by the adverse weather conditions that the country has been experiencing.” He said there would be an investigation into the collapse.
A man in central London and a wom-
‘Passengers were injured and taken to hospital when the double-decker bus they were travelling in blew over’
‘Commuters were left stranded after rail routes were closed. London Euston station was evacuated’
an in her 60s in Stoke-on-Trent were both hospitalised after suffering “serious head injuries” from flying debris. The London man is said to be in a “serious condition” following reports of “debris falling from the roof of a building” by Victoria Station at around 3pm, the Metropolitan Police said. The intense drop in atmospheric pressure caused winds of 100mph at the Port of Liverpool, which was forced to close to marine traffic. Parts of the city’s water- front were also closed, while in Manchester, outdoor filming for the TV soap Coronation Street had to be abandoned because of the weather.
In Cambridgeshire five passengers were injured when the double-decker bus they were travelling in blew over. They were taken to hospital with minor injuries. Lorries in other parts of the country were also toppled by the galeforce winds, while the weather caused serious disruption for rail passengers.
Network Rail introduced speed limits on some lines and said its staff were “doing all we can to keep the network running”, despite fallen trees, objects caught in overhead wires, heavy rain, flooding and debris on the tracks.
An explosive cyclogenesis, or “weather bomb”, occurs when a storm quickly intensifies and pressure rapidly drops at its centre. As the weather system charged east from the Atlantic it caused power cuts to more than 150 homes on Anglesey in north Wales after cables were blown down. Other parts of Wales were affected by flooding.
Road users also suffered chaos, exacerbated by the closure of several major bridges, including the Britannia Bridge linking Anglesey to mainland Wales and the QE2 bridge in Kent, where the M25 crosses the Thames.
In Scotland, snowfall led to the M80 being closed in both directions, as well as schools being shut and some ferry services cancelled. About 1,500 homes and businesses were without electricity in Northern Ireland after trees fell on overhead lines. The province suffered damage to its “Dark Hedges” tree-lined avenue in County Antrim, which featured in the TV drama Game of Thrones.
Air passengers were also affected. At London Heathrow 36 outgoing flights were cancelled and at London City Airport a CityJet flight from Amsterdam was diverted to London Gatwick.
Met Office meteorologist Emma Sharples warned last night that the weather would turn cold and icy.
When filming for Coronation Street is suspended and a tree made famous by Game of Thrones is blown down, we know things are serious. This was the work of Storm Doris. The Met Office says we are all safer now that storms are named, because we take more notice of them. But Doris does not sound like a name that deserves to be thought dangerous. Doris is rather old-fashioned. It is hard to think of Doris Archer or Elsie and Doris Waters rampaging through the country, causing damage to roofs and upsetting high-sided vehicles. If Britain gets through as many storms as it did last winter, we shall get up to Storm Kamil before summer. To the imaginative, that may sound like a sand storm, but if they go to the trouble of screwing metal gauze over the windows, they are going to be disappointed.