Tree fall kills driver in her 60s as 113mph winds batter Britain
A WOMAN motorist in her 60s was killed when high winds brought a tree crashing down on top of her car in Dorset yesterday.
The accident happened as Britain was lashed by 100 mph gales as violent storms felled trees, blocked roads, halted ferries and trains and forced the cancellation of bonfire parties across the country.
Police said the woman died instantly in her Ford B-Max on the B3081 Verwood Road in Wimborne, East Dorset, just before 9am.
The South-West took the worst battering, with one weather station measuring winds of 113 mph. Thousands of homes were without power and residents posted social media pictures of trees that had crashed down on roads and cars.
The Environment Agency issued six flood warnings and 67 flood alerts across the UK, mainly across counties such as Dorset, Devon and Gloucestershire. Hundreds of homes were reported to be without power after supplies were hit.
The Met Office said last night that the weather will feel a bit calmer today, but experts warned it will still be a wet and windy week for most of the UK.
Early yesterday, the Kernow Weather Team, an independent meteorological group, measured hurricane-force winds of 113 mph in the West Cornwall village of Illogan. One expert from the group posted on its Facebook page: ‘Please please DO NOT DRIVE, these wind gusts are dangerous and violent.’
The Met Office said i ts own weather stations in mainland Britain have measured winds of up to 83 mph in Plymouth and 101 mph in the Isle of Wight.
Dorset Police posted a photograph of scaffolding which had collapsed onto parked cars in Blandford Forum during the early hours.
Storms also brought chaos to parts of Devon and Cornwall, with trees falling on houses, cars and roads. In Bodmin, a landslide caused by heavy rains blocked a road.
In the Warberries area of Torquay, a family said they were lucky to be alive after both of their cars and the roof of their house were hit by a falling tree. In Torquay town centre, three cars were crushed by a falling tree near Lymington Park.
Thousands of properties across the South-West were without electricity after several power cuts. Western Power Distribution said more than 1,500 properties in Somerset and 3,700 in Devon and Cornwall were without power.
On the south coast, Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks said more than 3,000 homes and businesses, including parts of the New Forest and the Isle of Wight, were suffering power cuts.
Drivers were urged to be careful on the A380 Telegraph Hill in Exeter, as parts of the dual carriageway was flooded by heavy rain. The weather also brought travel disruption to the South-East, with passenger ferries between Dover and Calais suspended due to ‘extreme weather’.
P&O Ferries tweeted: ‘All sailing operations still suspended due to extreme weather conditions. Dover Harbour closed.’
Brittany Ferries and Condor Ferries cancelled some of their sailings from Portsmouth and Poole, while Hovercraft sailings between Southsea in Hampshire and Ryde on the Isle of Wight were halted.
Thameslink and Great Western Railway train services were disrupted by falling trees and debris.
The windy and wet weather brought the cancellation of dozens of firework displays to mark Bonfire Night.
Fireworks celebration in Bishop’s Stortford, Essex, and Leeds Castle in Kent were cancelled, as were celebrations in Nottingham, Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire and Cornwall. But some London councils, such as Lewisham, continued with firework displays, despite the rain.
The Met Office forecast that the South West and other parts of the UK will still be battered by winds, but with much less force at around 50mph.
Meteorologist Matt Box said: ‘It is likely to be wet and windy for the next few days, which is typical for this time of the year.’