Heading our way, storm that left 20 dead in the US
THE storm that killed at least 20 people in the US is heading to Britain, sparking fears of more flooding.
Storm Jonas, which brought America’s East Coast to a standstill as it dumped up to 40 inches of snow, will hit the UK tomorrow, bringing heavy rain and gales of up to 70mph – which is close to hurricane force.
The Environment Agency has issued flood alerts for 30 towns and cities and the Met Office sent out a yellow weather warning, telling residents to be aware, for Scotland, Wales and North-West England. That means homeowners in Dumfries and Galloway, who were among the worst affected by last month’s flooding, could face another round of misery.
The Met Office said some areas could get up to six inches of rain in 24 hours – roughly the amount that fell over the Lake District and Yorkshire during the devastating Storm Desmond in early December.
Met Office forecaster Rebecca Simpson said that when Jonas, which has been dubbed ‘the storm of a generation’, moves across the Atlantic it will be ‘warmed and modified’. She said: ‘The storm will meet warmer air that is currently over the UK. In the UK we won’t get snow – it will be rain instead.’
One or two inches of rain will fall on Scotland and North-West England tomorrow, with similar levels in the South on Wednesday.
Miss Simpson said Wales is ‘most at risk’ and will get between three and six inches of rain by Wednesday. There will also be 50mph gales across England and Wales, reaching 70mph in some areas. The fears of further flooding come as it emerged that a Norman castle in Cumbria is in danger of crumbling into a river after its foundations were damaged by a landslide during the floods. Cockermouth Castle, built in 1134, is perched precariously on a hill by the confluence of the rivers Cocker and Derwent. It if does collapse, it could raise the risk of flooding in the nearby town Cockermouth.
Jonas, which could be renamed Storm Gertrude by the Met Office when it hits the UK, wreaked havoc in the US, with eleven states declaring a state of emergency. Some 85million people, or one in four Americans, were affected by the storm, including at least 130,000 left without power.
Among those killed was a boy aged four who died when the car he was in crashed into a truck in North Carolina.
In New Jersey, a mother, 23, and her one-year-old son died of carbon monoxide poisoning after snow blocked their car’s exhaust pipe. A 37-year-old man died in New York after shooting himself in a game of Russian Roulette during the storm on Saturday night. The
highest snowfall was in Glengary, West Virginia, with 40 inches, while New York saw 26.6 inches, a one-day record for the city, which forced a travel ban on the roads and all Broadway shows to be cancelled.
The clean-up operation is expected to cost $1billion (£700million).
But not everybody found the storm hard to bear. Tian Tian the giant panda had a blast rolling around in the snow at the National Zoo in Washington on Saturday. Offering some light relief for many from the bad weather, the video of the 265lb male playing has been watched 45million times on Facebook.