Eunice aftermath rocks Britain
Eunice aftermath rocks Britain: 250,000 homes are STILL without power and train networks are paralysed by fallen trees with bill for damage set to hit 500MILLION after record 122mph winds
Travel chaos caused by Storm Eunice will continue through today as the £500million clean-up beginsMany train services will remain unopened and ‘do not travel’ notices have been reissued for servicesHundreds of thousands of people across Britain remain without power after devastation of EuniceA clean-up is set to begin after the storm brought damage and record-breaking gusts of wind to the UK The storm lead to the deaths of at least four people and tore off the roof of The O2 dome in London
<!–
<!–
<!–<!–
<!–
(function (src, d, tag){
var s = d.createElement(tag), prev = d.getElementsByTagName(tag)[0];
s.src = src;
prev.parentNode.insertBefore(s, prev);
}(“https://www.dailymail.co.uk/static/gunther/1.17.0/async_bundle–.js”, document, “script”));
<!–
DM.loadCSS(“https://www.dailymail.co.uk/static/gunther/gunther-2159/video_bundle–.css”);
<!–
Widespread travel chaos caused by Storm Eunice is set to continue through today as the £500million clean-up begins and around 250,000 people across Britain remain without power.
At least three people have been killed in the UK as record-breaking gales of 122mph ripped through the country yesterday in one of the worst storms to have hit the island in decades.
Many train services will remain unopened this morning and ‘do not travel’ notices have been reissued for a number of services, according to National Rail Enquiries.
Around a quarter of a million people are still without power, with a clean-up set to begin after the storm brought damage and devastation to the UK and Ireland in dramatic scenes.
As of last night, the number of households without power listed by providers was: 6,000 in Northern Power, 112,000 in Western Power, 260 in Electricity North West, 156,000 in UK Power Networks and 120,000 in the Scottish & Southern networks.
The Met Office has issued a less-severe yellow wind warning for much of the south coast of England and South Wales on Saturday, which it said ‘could hamper recovery efforts from Storm Eunice’.
National Rail said ‘routes across most of Great Britain’ remain affected. A do not travel notice was reissued for the Southern, Thameslink and Great Northern networks for this morning where some routes are expected not to reopen until the afternoon.
South Western Railway expects significant disruption across their network in the morning, while Great Western Railway and Greater Anglia services are suspended until approximately 10am. Passengers are still being asked to avoid travelling where possible.
Millions of people were urged to stay at home on Friday due to safety fears over the impact of Eunice, while transport woes meant many were unable to travel.
A woman in her 30s died after a tree fell on a car in Haringey, north London, on Friday afternoon, the Metropolitan Police said. A man in his 50s died in Netherton, Merseyside, after debris struck the windscreen of a vehicle he was travelling in.
Another man in his 20s was killed in Alton, Hampshire, after a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter pick-up collided with a tree in Old Odiham Road just before midday.
Earlier, a man in Co Wexford, Ireland, was also killed by a falling tree. A member of the public suffered ‘serious injuries’ after being struck by debris from a roof in Henley-on-Thames. Two men were hospitalised following similar, separate incidents in south London.
Around 250,000 people across the UK are still without power, according to power suppliers SSEN, UK Power Networks, Western Power, Northern Power and SP Energy (power outage maps pictured above)
The white-domed roof of the O2 arena is seen damaged by the wind, as a red weather warning was issued due to Storm Eunice, in London, Britain, February 18, 2022
A chimney has collapsed at a Power Plant on the Isle of Graint in Kent due to winds from Storm Eunice. There should be three chimneys (before photo, right)
A roadside filled with debris from the rooftops of three houses which were torn off during storm Eunice, on Kilburn Park Road in north west London
A mobile home is seen completely destroyed after Storm Eunice tore through St Albans in Hertfordshire on Friday
Sven Good, 23, with girlfriend Anna Parnanen. was at home at his parents’ house in Brentwood Ess exwhen the Oak Tree smashed through his bedroom window during storm Eunice
Many train services will remain unopened this morning and ‘do not travel’ notices have been reissued for a number of services, according to National Rail Enquiries
Handout photo taken with permission from the Twitter feed of @john_morgan_wal showing a trampoline flying mid air during Storm Eunice in Builth Wells, mid Wales
Switch Island closed yesterday after debris hit a van windscreen, leaving a man injured
Handout photo taken with permission from the Twitter feed of Alan Schneiderman @alan_s01 of fallen scaffolding on a vehicle in North End Road in Golders Green during Storm Eunice
A fallen tree rests against a house blocking a road in Sudbury, Suffolk
Scene on Muswell Hill Road in north London. A woman has died in Muswell Hill, north London, after a tree fell onto a car she was travelling in
Taking a tumble: A shopper struggles to negotiate a pedestrian crossing on London’s Euston Road, and is rescued by a passer by
The Met Office has issued a less-severe yellow wind warning for today (left) and tomorrow (right)
The Environment Agency has kept flood warnings across much of England in place this morning
Do not travel alerts were issued across railways in England and Wales on Friday, as seven operators suspended all services, with footage showing a building roof being blown on to tracks.
The train operators which stopped running all services on Friday afternoon were: c2c, Chiltern Railways, Great Western Railway, Greater Anglia, South Western Railway, Southeastern and Transport for Wales.
As of early Saturday morning the National Rail website still listed no services for: Avanti West Coast, Chiltern Railways, Grand Central, Great Western Railway, Greater Anglia, Heathrow Express, South Western Railway, Stansted Express and Transport for Wales.
Meanwhile, CrossCountry Trains has asked passengers not to travel on Saturday ‘following cancelled strike action’.
The provider wrote on Twitter: ‘Whilst a strike has been called off, we have not been able to reinstate our timetable. An amended timetable runs today.’
More than 430 flights due to take off or land at UK airports were also cancelled on Friday.
An estimated 5million people watched livestream video of aircraft battling with high winds while they attempted to land at London’s Heathrow Airport.
Jerry Dyer, who runs the YouTube channel Big Jet TV, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘Yesterday, when the whole Storm Eunice, and prior to that Storm Dudley… I said in the morning… I wonder if we can possibly reach 30,000 people watching live, as many as we did during Storm Ciara.
‘Every now and then you’d glance at the number of people watching and you’re like, 88,000 people… 105,000 people – it was just going mad.
‘At the end of the day we ended up with… normally we’d have about 100,000-plus views, and we had, from when I went to sleep last night, it was 5.5million views.’
Mr Dyer said at one point there were 238,000 viewers watching live during the channel’s peak popularity on Friday.
Both the M4 Prince of Wales Bridge and the M48 Severn Bridge, which link England and Wales across the River Severn, were closed due to high winds. It is believed to be the first time both crossings have been closed simultaneously.
A roadside filled with debris from the rooftops of three houses which were torn off during storm Eunice, on Kilburn Park Road in north west London
Debris from the rooftops of three houses torn off during Storm Eunice litter the pavement on Kilburn Park Road, north west London
Strong winds blew a tree into the front of a bus in Biggin Hill in London, adding to the clean-up bill for Storm Eunice. There were no reported injuries from the incident
Handout photo taken with permission from the Twitter feed of @thisissandbanks, of the scene at the Royal Motor Yacht Club in Poole, during Storm Eunice
Earlier, Network Rail closed all routes in Kent while every line in south-east London was blocked by trees.
Preston train station also closed to passengers, with rail engineers inspecting sections of metal roof panelling that came off due to the winds.
The Port of Dover announced it was closed ‘in the interests of customer and staff safety’, meaning no ferries could operate between Dover and Calais. Several sailings across the Irish Sea were also cancelled.
Traffic Wales, the Welsh Government’s traffic information service for motorways and trunk roads, warned that ‘many HGVs are ignoring the safety advice on Britannia Bridge’.
The bridge, which connects the island of Anglesey with mainland Wales, is closed to all traffic except cars and car-derived vans.
There were one-hour delays on the M25 due to the closure of the Queen Elizabeth II bridge, which is part of the Dartford Crossing.
The RAC said the number of call-outs to broken-down vehicles was lower than normal, indicating that many people were ‘taking the weather warnings seriously and not setting out’.
It added: ‘The fact many roads are so clear is a sign that today is not a safe day to be driving.’
Transport for London urged people to avoid non-essential journeys in the capital.
As of Friday afternoon there were severe delays on to the tube’s District Line, Jubilee Line and Piccadilly line, while TfL Rail was suspended.
The M48 Severn Bridge remains closed to all traffic following Storm Eunice. A spokesman for the Severn crossings said the bridge would not reopen until a detailed inspection had been carried out on Saturday morning.
The M4 Prince of Wales Bridge reopened on Friday afternoon. It was believed to be the first time both crossings had been closed at the same time due severe winds.
Areas affected by the warning could experience more bridge closures, travel delays and further power cuts.
Icy stretches are also expected widely across Northern England, Northern Ireland and Scotland, with some snow in the regions. Five flood warnings were also still in place.
Winds of 122mph were provisionally recorded at the Needles on the Isle of Wight on Friday, which, if verified, would be the highest ever recorded in England. The previous record was 118mph at Gwennap Head in Cornwall in 1979.
Footage shared online captured planes struggling to land in high winds, damage to the roof of the O2 arena in London, and the spire of St Thomas Church in Wells, Somerset, crashing to the ground.
