Tropical storm Katia has shut down roads and power and led to one death in Ireland, Britain

[Pastor Dale Morgan]

Perilous Times and Climate Change

Tropical storm Katia has shut down roads and power and led to one death in Ireland, Britain


    * By Shawn Pogatchnik in Dublin
    * From: AP
    * September 13, 2011 7:15AM


TROPICAL Storm Katia has shut down roads and power and led to one death in Ireland and Britain, where residents braced for the strongest wind gusts in 15 years.

Forecasters in both countries said today's gusts topped 125km/h as the storm - previously a hurricane as it roared across the Atlantic - made driving, shipfaring and even walking dangerous in broad swaths of Ireland, Scotland and northern England.

In north-east England's County Durham, a driver died after a tree fell on a car on the highway, Durham police said. Officers later warned all drivers to be careful driving through the high winds.

CE Electric UK, which provides power in the northeast of England, said it was working to restore the power supply to about 10,000 properties.

Most ferry services between Ireland and Britain were cancelled, and fishing boats along the Atlantic coasts of Ireland and Scotland were warned to head into port.

Britain's government forecasting service, the Met Office, told the public to be ready for the strongest winds since October 1996, when the tail end of Hurricane Lili killed five Britons and caused an estimated £150 million ($230 million) of damage there.

The Met Office said winds were averaging 88km/h while the strongest reported gust so far was 128km/h at a mountain station in North Wales. Gusts in the Northern Ireland border town of Castlederg reached 118km/h.

Heavy rainfall hit the north of Ireland and central Scotland, where Transport Minister Keith Brown reassured travellers that emergency crews were ready to handle accidents, road blockages and power outages.

"Robust contingency arrangements are in place so people should not panic," Mr Brown said.

The Tour of Britain cycling race cancelled today's planned second stage across northern England after deeming the course's most exposed and elevated points too dangerous.

Ireland, which is regularly buffeted by strong Atlantic winds, also warned of exceptionally dangerous driving conditions and the risk of widespread coastal flooding. Towns along Ireland's Atlantic coast last experienced heavy flooding in November 2010.

A bridge spanning a bay in County Donegal, northwest Ireland, was closed today as a precaution, while fallen trees obstructed roads in several other parts of the island, including Limerick in the south-west.

Ireland's Electricity Supply Board said its engineers were trying to restore power to about 11,000 homes along the Irish Republic's border with Northern Ireland. Another 2000 homes in Dublin lost power because of toppled electricity lines.

Authorities in Norway, Sweden and Denmark said they expected gale-force winds to arrive there tomorrow.

Ireland and Britain periodically catch the tail-end of Atlantic hurricanes as they travel north-east with the Gulf Stream and weaken into tropical storms.