Record gusts cause road and rail chaos
STORM Hector battered Brits yesterday with some of the strongest June winds ever to hit the UK.
Gusts of up to 100mph flattened trees and brought travel chaos by closing roads and railway lines across the northern half of the country.
A woman in her forties was treated at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary after she was struck by a roof slate. In England, police closed the Tees flyover to high-sided vehicles and the Shields Ferry across the Tyne was not operating.
The June record for a gust in Ireland was smashed by a 74mph blast in Orlock Head, Northern Ireland, where “risk to life” warnings were in place.
More than 3ins of rain fell in Cumbria and more than 5ins drenched the Isle of Skye. ScotRail said “chainsaw gangs” and overhead line teams had to be used across the rail network to remove trees and branches that caused delays and cancellations. Winds reached 100mph in the Cairngorms in the Scottish Highlands overnight.
Social media was flooded with people posting photos of uprooted trees, devastated gardens and travel chaos.
But the gusts were not all bad news.
Official figures showed that in the 30 minutes before
10am yesterday, 34.5% of Britain’s electricity came from wind – far higher than the
6% recorded on previous, calmer days.