THE IRE OF ERIK
One dead as 80mph storm lashes Britain
A MAN has died after high winds from Storm Erik sent a tree crashing down on to two cars – and more gales of up to 70mph are expected today.
The 50-year- old from Totnes was driving an Alfa Romeo through Buckfastleigh in Devon when the car was struck at 5.30am yesterday.
A woman in the second car, a Hyundai, was trapped and had to be cut free by firemen but escaped serious injury.
A Devon and Cornwall Police spokesman said: ‘The driver of the Alfa Romeo sustained fatal injuries and was pronounced deceased at the scene.’ He was yet to be named last night.
The tree was brought down by 45mph winds but stronger winds were recorded later, with 84mph at Capel Curig, Snowdonia, just before 9pm, and 80mph at Needles, Isle Of f Wight, after 4pm, the Meteorological Office said.
Significant rain also fell yesterday, with two inches on high ground in Wales, Cumbria and the Pennines, and about one inch in other areas.
The wet and windy conditions caused surface water flooding on roads and brought down more e trees. Passengers had a lucky escape when another tree brought down by Storm Erik k
‘High winds and swollen rivers’
crashed through the roof of a double-decker bus.
The 40ft tree was blown over in 50mph winds and landed on top of the passing X6 Morebus in Poole, Dorset.
Its trunk tore through the bus’s front windscreen just before 12pm – crushing the seats at the front – and came out of the right hand side.
There were five passengers on board but nobody was hurt.
Meanwhile, two people were pulled from a submerged car after it left a flooded road in St Clears, near Carmarthen.
The high winds also caused heart-stopping moments for air passengers, with one British Airways plane having to abort a landing at Heathrow.
Forecasters have warned of more high winds today, with speeds due to reach 70mph in the North, the East, central England, most of Wales and as far south as Suffolk between midnight and 3pm.
A total of 27 flood alerts were in place yesterday due to swollen rivers in Cumbria, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, Dorset, Devon, Cornwall, Oxfordshire and Cambridgeshire.
The Met Office warns of travel delays, bridges being closed to high-sided vehicles, power cuts and large waves.