A cleanup operation is under way across the UK as communities survey the damage brought by Storm Darragh, which killed two people over the weekend.
Sunday evening brings an end to severe weather warnings for wind and rain in place since Friday, which resulted in chaos on roads and rail in many parts of the country and severe flooding.
On Saturday morning, a man in his 40s was killed when a tree fell on his van on the A59 at Longton, near Preston, while a second man died at about 3pm when a tree fell on his car in Erdington, Birmingham.
At 3am, a bus driver was taken to hospital after his Translink airport express bus left the road and hit a wall near Antrim in Northern Ireland.
There were gusts of nearly 100mph in some parts of the country on Saturday and more than a quarter of a million people were left without power in the west of England and Wales.
By 7pm on Sunday, 94% of homes that had suffered power outages had been reconnected the Energy Networks Association said, leaving 118,000 people without power.
The rail network was blighted by delays and cancellations, with Southeastern and Thameslink services particularly badly affected and all lines closed between Wolverhampton and Stafford due to a tree blocking the line.
In Wales, the owner of Llandudno’s historic pier said it would be a “miracle” if the structure survived the storm intact, as images emerged of a kiosk ripped from its foundations and damage to other parts of the 1878 construction ahead of high tide at 2.42pm on Sunday afternoon.
Adam Williams, of Tir Prince, who has owned the site since 2015, told North Wales Live: “The weather is biblical. We have never known it so bad. The tide still has a long way to come in yet, if it survives it will be a miracle.”
However, the pier remained in place on Sunday, though it suffered severe damage, with pieces from the 150-year-old wooden structure found more than a mile down the coast.
A fundraiser set up on Saturday evening for repairs to the beloved pier had reached nearly £7,000 by Sunday afternoon.
Capel Curig in north Wales recorded wind speeds of 96mph on Saturday, after a “risk to life” emergency alert was sent to the mobile phones of about 3 million people on Friday evening. Winds of 70mph continued into Sunday.
Sporting events such as the Premier League derby between Everton and Liverpool were called off, and ferries and flights were cancelled, with those seeking to come into the UK being diverted as far as Germany.
On Sunday, yellow weather warning for wind remained in place across England, Wales and the southern tip of Scotland, with a separate warning in the north-east of England for rain. As much as 60mm was expected to fall over the high ground of the Cheviots, Pennines and North York Moors, the Met Office said.
However, the Met Office said Monday would be settled, with a chilly start and patchy cloud leading to further outbreaks of rain.
The Environment Agency, Scottish Environment Protection Agency and Cyfoeth Naturiol Cymru issued more than 200 flood warnings and alerts over the weekend in England, Scotland and Wales.
An Environment Agency spokesperson said: “Local flooding from rivers and surface water is probable in parts of the West Midlands, north-east and north-west England on Sunday.
“Local flooding may continue into Monday and Tuesday along parts of the River Severn in Shropshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire until Tuesday. Land, roads and some properties could flood and there could be travel disruption.”
Speaking on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, the deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, said there needed to be greater environmental protection to help tackle flooding in the future, especially with Labour’s plan to build 1.5m homes over the next five years.
“Absolutely right we have to look at that with my 1.5m homes, we have to make sure that we take environmental factors into place,” Rayner said.
She said it had been 30 years since a reservoir was built and it was important to “deliver that infrastructure we desperately need”.
She added: “So yes we have to invest because otherwise we won’t be able to get the houses and the new infrastructure and jobs that we desperately need and the growth.”
Source: theguardian.com
