FREAK STORM CAUSES CHAOS ACROSS BRITAIN

[tropicana]

9:16pm (UK)
WED JUNE 23rd 2004
Freak Storm Causes Chaos Across Parts of Britain

By Simon Baker, Caroline Gammell and Chris Court, PA News


Gale force winds and rain caused chaos across parts of Britain today as an unseasonable storm felled trees, closed a major ferry port and caused a tennis wash-out at Wimbledon.

The freak conditions, brought on by a severe low pressure crossing the country just days after the summer solstice, left the south of England battered by winds gusting up to 80mph.

Resulting stormy seas left the Port of Dover shut for several hours and stranded hundreds of passengers on ferries which were forced to remain in the Channel.

In Brighton, huge waves and gusts of wind brought one of the final pieces of the historic West Pier – already been ravaged by two fires – crashing into the sea.

The weather also played havoc with the country’s traditional sporting calendar, including a complete wash-out of play at Wimbledon for only the eighth time in the last 30 years.

People living in the west of England and Wales were the first to endure the wrath of the summer storm, with flooding in Dorset and Cornwall leading to road closures.

In Porthtowan, north Cornwall, dozens of people were temporarily evacuated from their homes after a landslip involving hundreds of tonnes of sand.

Meanwhile, in Wales, a girl aged 12 suffered a broken leg when she was hit by debris from the roof of a youth club damaged by wind in Blaenymaes, Swansea.

Later in the day the south coast became the focus of the high winds while the heavy rain moved north affecting Northern Ireland, northern England and Scotland.

Some of the highest winds were recorded off the Isle of Wight, where a gust reached 84mph at The Needles, while Ballypatrick Forest in Northern Ireland was the wettest, receiving 49mm of rain in 24 hours.

The high winds caused the suspension of all cross-Channel ferry services out of Dover for several hours, delaying hundreds of passengers.

Many were stuck on about eight ferries which were unable to dock due to the hazardous conditions and took shelter further up the coast near the Kent port of Deal.

A spokeswoman for P&O ferries said: “The port opened at about 7pm, but it is really unusual for it to close completely. Winds of this strength are unusual even in the winter.”

Eurotunnel said it had been busy dealing with the knock-on effect of the port’s closure, and had taken traffic from at least one ferry operator.

Meanwhile, Operation Stack was in force on the M20. This allows police to “park” lorries on the motorway while the port is closed to avoid traffic problems.

In another incident, a 200 metre-long barge with 12,000 tonnes of stone on board broke free of its moorings near Folkestone and drifted down the coast past Dover.

Nobody was hurt and a tug was sent out by coastguards to bring the vessel under control.

Fire crews across the south were called to hundreds of weather-related incidents involving falling trees, unstable scaffolding and damaged lamp posts.

In the capital, branches fell on the Metropolitan Line of the London Underground in the Rickmansworth area at around 6am.

It took half an hour for the debris to be cleared and services to resume.

Flooding at Waterloo station caused the complete closure of the Waterloo and City line.

A spokesman for the PA WeatherCentre said it was unusual for the UK to be hit by such a low pressure system in June, as such storms usually only occur in the autumn and winter.

He added: “The low is slowly tracking away towards Norway but there are still some strong winds about. Tomorrow it will be breezy, but the winds will not be as strong as today.”

He added that summer was due to make some sort of return by Friday with the arrival of higher pressure bringing drier conditions and some sunshine.

-justin-

[tropicana]

Storms Rage Across Germany
June 23rd 2004



Severe storms on Wednesday night wreaked havoc across much of Germany, causing widespread damage, injuring dozens and killing at least one person. On Lake Chiemsee in the southern state of Bavaria, a strong gust of wind overturned a sailboat with three men on board, one of whom, a 62-year-old-man, drowned in the cool waters. On the autobahn just outside the city of Kassel, high winds caused numerous traffic accidents. In addition, downed power lines, fallen trees and delayed trains created havoc in numerous regions. Winds in excess of a 100 kilometers per hour (62 miles per hour) were recorded in many parts of the country.

-justin-