Power cuts hell
Blackouts hit 150,000 as mop-up begins after Storm Eunice
Patrick Hill Stephen Hayward AROUND 150,000 homes were still without power last night more than 24 hours after Britain’s worst storm in decades.
Engineers were working through the night to restore electricity to homes cut off after record winds of up to 122mph.
Storm Eunice caused misery for millions on Friday and left Britain facing a £350million repair bill, according to insurers.
The Energy Networks Association said: “Weather is continuing to challenge the teams working to reconnect power, but engineers are working hard to get as many people reconnected as quickly as we safely can.”
Widespread damage included a toppled chimney at Grain Power Station in Kent, which supplies electricity to one million homes. It was forced to temporarily close.
Meanwhile, a young dad was among at least three people killed in the UK by the storm.
Jack Bristow, who had a one-year-old son, died when the flat-bed truck he was travelling in was crushed by a 40ft tree in Alton, Hampshire, on Friday. In a heartbreaking message online,
Jack’s girlfriend Courtney Emmett wrote: “Please God bring my love back to me. I love you Jack.”
One of his pals, Bradley Hall, added: “He was a proud father and a loving partner.”
Last night the seriously injured van driver was in hospital. Both men were believed to be in their early 20s.
A woman in her 30s was killed after a tree fell on her car in Haringey, North London.
A man in his 50s was fatally injured in Netherton, Merseyside, after debris smashed through the windscreen of the van in which he was a passenger. The driver was unhurt.
Falling
In Ireland, which was also hit by Eunice, council worker Billy Kinsella, 59, a dad-of-one, was killed by a falling tree while clearing debris from a road close to his home in Co Wexford.
Football matches were yesterday called off and travel chaos continued with airports and ferry companies battling to catch up on cancelled services.
The M48 Severn Bridge remained closed in both directions. Flood warnings remained in place in West Sussex and Shropshire.
A quarter of train services were cancelled and
a third delayed as National Rail reported major damage across the network, with engineers dealing with at least 40 felled trees. Snow fell in Lancashire, Derbyshire, Yorkshire and Greater Manchester.
Thrill-seekers were evacuated from the Big Dipper rollercoaster at Blackpool Pleasure Beach after it ground to a halt in the snow.
There were hour-long delays on the M62 between Lancashire and Yorkshire.
An incoming flight from Italy to Stansted Airport in Essex was forced to divert over 700 miles to Oslo, Norway, because of high winds.
Amid the stories of tragedy, there were also some miracles.
A horse had an astonishing escape after 10 firefighters spent seven hours freeing him when he was trapped under three 100-ft-tall trees that crashed next to him in a field in Ludgershall, Wilts.
Dad-of-two Dominic Good, 57, and his family were unhurt after a 400-year-old oak slammed into
their roof in Brentwood, Essex. His son’s empty Mazda MX5 car was completely crushed. Match of the Day pundit Ian Wright, 58, walked away unscathed after his chauffeur-driven car crashed on the M56 while heading to the BBC in Manchester.
TV chef Gordon Ramsay, 55, and his family had a narrow escape after a giant tree crashed into a wall between their home and the next in South West London.
In Bitterne, Southampton, a flat roof blown offf a tower block landed on a house below.
A delivery driver walked away after his van was blown off the road at Ramsey, Cambs.
The Met Office warned that strong winds are set to continue today and tomorrow in parts of Northern Ireland, Scotland and some Irish sea coasts along with heavy rain in parts of North West England.
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