High winds/rains bring chaos to southern Britain
Pastor Dale Morgan
High winds/rains bring chaos to southern Britain*
By Staff and agencies
Last Updated: 4:06pm GMT 06/03/2007
A train was derailed and part of a building collapsed as high winds
battered southern parts of Britain today.
High winds bring chaos to souther Britain: house in Dorset badly damaged
Gusts of up to 69 mph were recorded near Dover
With gusts hitting 74 mph in the English Channel, more than 200 areas of
the country were on the alert for flooding after sustained overnight
downpours.
In Bournemouth, Dorset, the entire gable end of a Victorian terrace came
crashing down into the street, while in Surrey an early-morning train
was derailed after hitting a tree which had been blown over.
The Met Office recorded winds of 64 knots (74 mph) at Needles on the
Isle of Wight in the early hours of the morning.
As winds later moved eastwards, gusts of 60 knots (69 mph) were recorded
in the Dover Straits.
With rain affecting a wider area, building on recent downpours, the
Environment Agency put official flood warnings in place in 33 locations
and a further 174 spots were put on the less serious “flood watch” alert.
The rail operator Southeastern said a three-carriage train travelling
from Gillingham in Kent to Redhill in Surrey had struck a fallen tree
near Crowhurst at 5.40 am.
The front wheels of the train were derailed although the carriages
remained upright, travelling for a quarter of a mile before coming to a
halt.
None of the six passengers on board the train was hurt in the incident,
which led to the railway line being blocked during the busy morning rush
hour.
Not far away, a train from Ashford in Kent to London Victoria also
struck a tree near Maidstone, again blocking the line.
No one was hurt and Southeastern laid on buses to take people to
alternative railway stations.
Meanwhile, up to 20 people were evacuated when a gable wall collapsed in
St Michael’s Road in Bournemouth, bringing broken brick and rubble
crashing into the narrow street near the town centre.
Police said the occupants had been evacuated for their own safety and
had all managed to find alternative places to stay.
The road remained closed while a structural engineer examined the site.
The building houses four flats and the collapse left the entire roof
space open to the elements.
Further north, more than 1,000 people had to be evacuated from their
caravans just outside Northampton because of fears that rising river
levels would cause a flood.
Most of those forced out of the caravan site at Billing Aquadrome were
able to stay elsewhere but police said up to 100 had to spend the night
in the centre’s bar because of the severe flood warning on the River Nene.
Police, emergency planning officers and site managers worked to move the
people after the Environment Agency warned of the flood risk.