Storm Ciara ravages UK

Anger as hundreds of people flee homes and storm and flooding defences fail

STORM Ciara wreaked havoc across Britain yesterday as gales of up to 156km/h tore down buildings and forced hundreds of people to leave their homes.

The Met Office dubbed Ciara the “storm of the century” after more than a month’s rain fell in 24 hours.

The Met Office’s meteorologist Helen Roberts said: “In terms of area, this is probably the biggest storm this century. I have not seen amber warnings on this scale, across all of Wales and much of England.”

Ciara hit Britain on the back of a Gulf air stream travelling at 426km/h, which was as fast as it had ever been, she said.

Towns in the Pennines and Yorkshire Dales that have endured years of flooding are again under water after new defences failed, while roads and railways across the country were blocked by raging torrents and falling trees.

Hundreds of flights were axed, including 140 British Airways and 12 Virgin Atlantic services at Heathrow, while others were delayed or diverted. Flights at Manchester, Luton, Stansted, Gatwick, Birmingham and Leeds Bradford were also cancelled.

Even the Queen was affected. She was unable to attend St Mary Magdalene Church in Sandringham for “safety reasons”.

In West Yorkshire, there was anger as defences built after flooding five years ago failed – or made the problem worse – when nearly 7.6 cm of rain fell, leaving the centres of Hebden Bridge, Todmorden and Mytholmroyd under water. Yesterday afternoon, 240 flood warnings and 190 flood alerts were in force across England.

The Environment Agency urged people to stay away from exposed seafront areas, and to avoid posing for “storm selfies”.

In Whalley, Lancashire, residents were evacuated using inflatable boats.

Motorways, including the M1, were disrupted by flooding and jack-knifed trucks, while gales closed the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge at Dartford, the M48 Severn Bridge and the Humber Bridge.

The Port of Dover was closed, with ferry services to France and Belgium suspended.

The M11 was closed in Cambridgeshire amid concerns a damaged hangar roof at historic Duxford Airfield could be blown on to the motorway.

Major rail lines closed by flooding included the West Coast main line between Preston and Carlisle, and the East Coast main line at Doncaster.

The winds folded a crane in half in Stanmore, north London, while a Grade 1-listed windmill at Burgh-le-Marsh, Lincolnshire, had its roof and sails torn off.

Sharon Noble, the owner of the neighbouring Windmill Restaurant, said: “It happened at 10.30am after the sails were going the wrong way round. We were advised to close. It’s just very sad. The windmill is owned by the county council and run by volunteers. Hopefully they will restore it because it’s been there for 175 years.”

Lindsey Wells, 36, said of the crane at Stanmore: “(It) looks like it’s made of spaghetti. It’s lucky it wasn’t during the week, as it’s a very busy, big development.”

One side of the Bridge House Guest House in Hawick, Scotland, collapsed into raging torrents below, with fears the whole building could also collapse.

Sporting events including horse racing and Manchester City’s Premier League football match against West Ham were called off, while the National Trust closed a large number of sites.

The strongest gust was 156km/h on the Isle of Wight. That counts as hurricane force but is short of the 189km/h record for England and Wales, at Gwennap Head, Cornwall, in December 1979.