BBC News Online: UK

Flood warnings as man drowns

The warning came after a 74-year-old man was drowned when he was blown into a river as gales swept the UK on Monday.

The man, who has not been named, was blown into the River Almond, in Cramond, Edinburgh, as severe weather conditions continued to disrupt roads, railways and ferries.

Northern Ireland and Scotland were worst hit as wind speeds hit 80mph.

Homes in Dumfriesshire, Kintyre and Perthshire were blacked out when power lines were brought down, and a total of more than 13,000 Scottish homes were without electricity at the height of the disruption. Power cuts also hit 1,700 homes in Northern Ireland.

Two overblown lorries blocked the M8 in Glasgow while the Forth Bridge in Edinburgh was closed to high-sided vehicles and caravans.

Caledonian-MacBrayne suspended or cancelled all early-morning ferry services on the west coast of Scotland.

The main east coast railway line is returning to normal after it was closed near Alnwick, Northumberland, when a train ran into fallen power cables.

Emergency services in Largs, Ayrshire, were called in to evacuate a number of people from houses, in the worst flooding for nearly 30 years.

Amber flood warnings of possible flooding to isolated properties, roads and farmland near rivers were issued to the River Severn at Gloucester, the River Leam, in Warwickshire and the Avon, near Rugby.

There were several less serious yellow alerts on rivers in East Anglia, the Midlands, the South and South West and on the River Wye in Wales.

The storms claimed two lives over the weekend. In Somerset on Sunday 51-year-old Mr Anthony Hamblin was killed after gale force winds tore a corrugated iron roof from a building in his home town of Bridgwater, Somerset.

Mr Hamblin was walking along the Bridgwater and Taunton canal when he was hit by the sheet from a shed 50 yards away.

In West Sussex, an elderly man died when a tree fell on top of him as he played with his grandson in the garden of his house in Bolney, West Sussex.

Robert Bridger, 70, was killed after being trapped beneath a tree blown over by Sunday's gale-force winds.

A 31-year-old woman had a lucky escape in Exeter, Devon, when a tree crushed her car seconds after she got out.

Athalie Collins, from Exeter, was taken to hospital with back injuries.

Relevant Stories

Four killed in avalanche (30 Dec 98 | UK)
Fourth night of weather misery (30 Dec 98 | UK)
Electricity firms attacked after storms (29 Dec 98 | UK)
Britain battered again (29 Dec 98 | UK)

Internet Links

BBC Weather Centre
The Met Office

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