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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Environment
Matthew Weaver

Storm Eleanor: at least four injured by fallen trees

The majority of flood warnings in Scotland, which largely affected communities on the Solway Firth, have been withdrawn after the worst effects of storm Eleanor passed by.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency had originally issued 15 flood warnings, chiefly for Dumfries and Galloway, but has since lifted 12 of those. Only three remain in force, for West Luce Bay on the northern edge of the Irish Sea, with two still in place for the Firth of Forth at Grangemouth in West Lothian and Culross, Longannet and Kincardine in Fife.

At the storm’s peak, which saw roads flooded across Dumfries and Galloway and winds hit 77mph, high tides briefly flooded the inshore rescue station on the river Nith near Glencaple, which also had reports of a man stranded in his flooded home.

Six lesser flood alerts remain in place, Sepa said. Pascal Lardet, the flood unit manager for Sepa, said: “As Storm Eleanor makes it way further into the North Sea, we are continuing to monitor the Moray and Aberdeenshire coastlines and areas around the Inner Firth of Forth for any potential impacts due to high tides this afternoon.

“More broadly, large waves together with high tides have the potential to cause wave overtopping across more exposed stretches of Scotland’s west coast throughout today, with also possible impacts also being felt overnight into Thursday.”

Summary

Here’s a roundup of the latest on the damage and disruption caused by Storm Eleanor.

  • At least four people have been injured by fallen trees after gusts of up to 100mph hit the UK. Two people were airlifted to hospital in Christchurch, Hampshire, when a tree hit their car. A man suffered leg injuries from fallen tree in Ashton-under-Hill in Warwickshire. Another man escaped with minor injuries in Hensol in south Wales after a tree fell on his car. A body was recovered from the sea at Seaford in Sussex, but it is unclear if the death was storm related.
  • A Met Office yellow warning of wind remains active for all of England and Wales, and Northern Ireland and the Scottish Borders until 7pm on Wednesday. Gusts of 100mph (160km/h) were recorded at Great Dun Fell in Cumbria at 1am, while wind speeds reached 90mph at Orlock Head in Northern Ireland on Tuesday.
  • Coastal towns and villages in north Cornwall are among the worst hit. A stretch of the harbour wall at Portreath was washed away forcing one family to flee their home.
  • Ireland’s taoiseach Leo Varadkar called a meeting of Ireland’s national emergency committee, after the storm left 55,000 homes without power.
  • A further 20,000 homes and business were without power in Northern Ireland. Around 2,500 properties between Cornwall and the Midlands were also hit by power cuts, according Western Power Distribution.
  • Flooding, high tides and fallen trees have hit a number of rail routes including delays on the line between Cornwall and Devon. Several ferry services were also cancelled.
  • There are currently 27 flood warnings and a further 136 flood alerts in place across England, Wales and Scotland.
  • Several major bridges, including the Severn River Crossing and Orwell Bridge in Suffolk were closed owing to high winds. There were numerous reports of fallen trees blocking roads including the M25.
  • The storm also called widespread disruption across Northern Europe. At least nine people were injured in France, a train was derailed in Germany, and tens of thousands of homes are without power.

The Environment Agency has urged people not to attempt “storm selfies”.

Flood duty manager Neil Davies said: “As the unsettled weather continues, large waves combined with high tides could lead to coastal flooding over the next few days, particularly in the west and south-west of England.
“We urge people to stay safe on the coast - take extreme care on coastal paths and promenades, and don’t put yourself in unnecessary danger trying to take ‘storm selfies’.

“If you’re travelling, please check your route before setting off and don’t drive through flood water.”

A family brave strong winds as waves crash over the tidal wall on New Brighton Promenade
A family brave strong winds as waves crash over the tidal wall on New Brighton Promenade Photograph: Jan Hendrik Kruger/Getty Images

The storm has led to the cancellation of a number of ferry services, writes Sara Luxmoore.

Irish Ferries cancelled voyages between between Dublin and Holyhead.

And Brittany Ferries cancelled sailings between Portsmouth and Le Havre, and Plymouth and Roscoff.

Condor Ferries said it had cancelled at least four sailings.

Speaking to the Bournemouth Echo, a spokesman said: “With wind speeds of up to 70mph and wave heights above seven metres, the company cancelled four sailings and placed other departures under review.

“For Wednesday, 03 January, all fast ferry sailings have been cancelled from the UK and France and Clipper’s departure from Portsmouth is being delayed until the wind speeds moderate to permit berthing in the Channel Islands.”

The DFDS Dover Seaways ferry crashes through waves as she arrives at The Port of Dover in Kent as Storm Eleanor lashed the UK
The DFDS Dover Seaways ferry crashes through waves as she arrives at The Port of Dover in Kent as Storm Eleanor lashed the UK Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA

Updated

A body has been recovered from the sea near Splash Point in Seaford, East Sussex, Sussex Coastguard has confirmed.

PA reports:

The remains were spotted in the water at around 8am, according to Sussex Police, who informed the coastguard.

It is not clear whether the person was swept into the water by the weather conditions.

As promised the Thames Barrier has been closed to prevent possible flooding in London.

Updated

BBC Cornwall has interviewed a resident of Portreath who fled her home, along with her husband and child, after a large section of the sea wall was destroyed in the storm.

The French Met office maybe following the UK and Ireland in calling it Storm Eleanor, but in Germany its Burglind.

AP has been rounding reports of storm damage and disruption across Europe.

Switzerland

The storm has led to power outages in Switzerland, canceled flights at Zurich and Basel, and toppled a truck on a Swiss highway.

Local media reported that at least 11 flights were canceled while several others were rerouted to other airports.

Thousands of households at Lake Zurich were left without power because of the storm and firefighters received repeated calls to help with toppled trees blocking streets and flooding due to heavy rains.

France

France’s interior ministry says nine people have been injured.

Four people are said to be in serious condition following accidents caused by the winds that reached speeds above 100 mph (160 kph) on Wednesday.

In the Paris region a falling tree hit a car and seriously injured one person, while another resident was seriously hurt falling from a building.

In the Eure-et-Loir, a motorcyclist hit a tree that had been uprooted and fell into the road. In the east, a woman was seriously injured after an object hit her in the head.
First responders have made 3,250 interventions related to some of the worst winds to hit France in years.

France’s national electricity provider says 200,000 households are without electricity across the country, including 30,000 in the Paris region.

Strong winds also battered Paris’ biggest airport Charles de Gaulle. Paris’ airport authority said that flights have been disrupted with slight delays stemming from precautions being taken to safely get travellers into aircraft.

Germany

Zoos have been closed, roads flooded and a train has derailed.

The German news agency DPA reported Wednesday that a train derailed near Luenen in western Germany when it crashed against a tree that had fallen on the tracks. No injuries were reported.

Highways near Duisburg and Juelich in the west were also partially blocked because of toppled trees and flooding.

The zoos in Munich and Augsburg in Bavaria closed for the day and the railway leading up on Germany’s tallest mountain, the Zugspitze, was also shut down because of the bad weather.

A member of the public was injured when a tree was brought down by high winds on the A46, PA reports citing West Mercia Police.

Officers were called to reports of a tree on the road, but, while there, another tree fell and injured the man.

He was taken to hospital with a suspected leg injury following the incident in Ashton-under-Hill, according to reports.

At least three other people have been injured by fallen trees across the UK.

A pregnant woman who had gone into labour early was flown to hospital by helicopter as Storm Eleanor began whipping across Mid-Wales, PA reports.

The expectant mother was collected from a makeshift landing site at the coastal town of Tywyn at around 5.30pm on Tuesday.

Mid and North-West Wales Coastguard sent a helicopter from its base in Caernarfon, north Wales, despite powerful winds rattling the western seashore.

A rescue team rushed her to a neonatal unit at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd Hospital in Rhyl, more than 60 miles away.

In a post on its Facebook page, the coastguard said: “Whilst Storm Eleanor began to hit the coastline, with gusts of up to 60mph, hammering rain and massive waves, Coastguard Helicopter Rescue 936 made its way down from its base in Caernarfon.
“Despite the appalling conditions R936 was able to make the trip safely and took the lady, who was accompanied by her midwife, to hospital.

“We’re amazed at what the Search and Rescue helicopter guys can get through.”

Mid and North-West Wales Coastguard Facebook post

The Bournemouth Echo has images of damage to a car hit by a tree in Christchurch. Both occupants of the Ford Focus were taken to hospital by air ambulance, Hampshire police told PA.

Norfolk Police is winning the contest for the artiest picture of Storm Eleanor in the public sector category.

In a rare piece of linguistic agreement the French Met Office is also referring to the weather system as Storm Eleanor. According to Le Telegramme, Météo France and its Spanish and Portuguese counterpart all agreed last month to follow the storm naming system in Ireland and the UK if the storm in question hits the British Isles first.

People watch waves crashing against the seafront in Auderville, Normandy, as storm Eleanor hits the northern part of France
People watch waves crashing against the seafront in Auderville, Normandy, as storm Eleanor hits the northern part of France Photograph: Charly Triballeau/AFP/Getty Images

Summary

Here’s a roundup of the disruption so far caused by Storm Eleanor.

  • A Met Office yellow warning of wind remains active for all of England and Wales, and Northern Ireland and the Scottish Borders until 7pm on Wednesday. Gusts of 100mph (160km/h) were recorded at Great Dun Fell in Cumbria at 1am, while wind speeds reached 90mph at Orlock Head in Northern Ireland on Tuesday.
  • Coastal towns and villages in north Cornwall are among the worst hit. A stretch of the harbour wall at Portreath was washed away and high tides breached sea walls along the county’s north coast.
  • Fallen trees have caused widespread damage and injuries to people trapped in their cars. Two people were rescued from a car when a tree hit it in the New Forrest, a man escaped with minor injuries in Hensol in south Wales after a tree fell on his car, and another man was rescued from a tree-hit car in Braintree, Essex.
  • Ireland’s taoiseach Leo Varadkar called a meeting of Ireland’s national emergency committee, after the storm left 55,000 homes without power.
  • A further 20,000 homes and business are without power in Northern Ireland. Around 2,500 properties between Cornwall and the Midlands were also hit by power cuts, according Western Power Distribution.
  • Flooding, high tides and fallen trees have hit a number of rail routes including delays on the line between Cornwall and Devon.
  • There are currently 64 flood warnings and a further 130 flood alerts in place across England, Wales and Scotland.
  • Several major bridges have closed owing to high winds and there were numerous reports of fallen trees blocking roads including the M25. The Severn River Crossing and the Orwell Bridge in Suffolk were closed in the early hours.

Highways England have released images of an overturned lorry on a roundabout off the M6 causing delays near Warrington.

The Met Office has updated its yellow weather warning for wind as the storm continues to head east over the North Sea away from the UK.

But it is still warning of gusts of up to 50mph.

A statement from the chief forecaster says:

Winds will slowly ease from the west through the day although a second peak in winds speeds is expected across Northern Ireland for a time during the mid to late afternoon.

Environment Agency officials are monitoring the flooded River Mersey in Warrington as high tide approaches at noon.

Overnight water levels were dangerously high at Bridgefoot.

A falling tree injured two men overnight when it crashed into their car, Hampshire Police told PA.

Officers were called to Lyndhurst Road in the New Forest at around 3.20am, and both occupants of the Ford Focus were taken to hospital by ambulance.

The road was cleared by 6.43am, according to a spokeswoman.

People living next to railway lines are being urged to secure their outdoor belongings after two trampolines were blown on to tracks by Storm Eleanor.

The trampolines were discovered by train crews near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, on Tuesday night.

Mark Killick, chief operating officer for Network Rail’s London North Western route, said: “It is incredible to think that a trampoline could fly through the air on to the railway but here we have not one but two at the same location.

“This is an ongoing problem for us which poses an obvious safety hazard and inconvenience to passengers.

“We would appeal to people living by the railway to ensure items such as trampolines, gazebos, marquees and tents are tethered so they don’t end up on the railway during high winds.”

Network Rail staff shifted the trampolines off the track and tethered them for removal on Wednesday.

Fire fighters rescued a man from a vehicle stuck in flood water in Chilcompton, Somerset, writes Sara Luxmoore.

Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue said crews used water rescue protection equipment and wading poles to rescue the man.

A man escaped with minor injuries after a tree fell on his car in Hensol, the Vale of Glamorgan, south Wales, according to South Wales police.

Paramedics were called to Hensol Road at around 10pm on Tuesday, where they took the injured man to the Royal Glamorgan hospital, PA reports.

Updated

The storm tore off a roof above a shopping precinct in Sharp End, north east of Birmingham. No one has been reported injured, according Birmingham Updates.

Updated

Ferry sailings to two popular Scottish islands in the southern Hebrides have been suspended due to storm Eleanor, the ferry operator CalMac has said.

Services connecting the small island of Iona with Fionnphort on Mull have been suspended, as have sailings to Islay. A CalMac spokesman said all 25 other services were still operating, and the company hoped to restart sailing to Iona and Islay later today.

“Both under constant review with the hope of finding a weather window to resume service. Yesterday 99.7% of sailings [were] as normal,” he said.

Elsewhere in Scotland, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency has flood warnings in place for 12 coastal communities along the Solway Firth in Dumfries and Galloway, and two for the inner Firth of Forth, around the oil refinery at Grangemouth and at Culross, Longannet and Kincardine on the Fife coast.

Flood alerts are in place for coastal areas across Ayrshire and Arran, the Highlands and north-east Scotland.

Updated

Fallen trees have caused widespread damage and travel disruption.

Two people were taken to hospital in Bournemouth after their car was hit by a fallen tree, according to the Bournemouth Echo.

Firefighters in Essex were were called after a car crashed into a fallen tree in Braintree, Essex.

It was one 15 incidents in the county caused by the storm, according to Essex County fire and rescue. Most involved fallen trees and power lines. But the incidents also included flat roof blown into a road and large metal shed which collapsed on to a car.

Roads in Dorset and Harrow north-west London were among those closed by fallen trees.

Storm Eleanor brings a large tree down on to a building in Christchurch, Dorset
Storm Eleanor brings a large tree down on to a building in Christchurch, Dorset Photograph: Geoffrey Swaine/REX/Shutterstock
A woman walks past a fallen tree as it blocks a road in Harrow, north-west London
A woman walks past a fallen tree as it blocks a road in Harrow, north west London Photograph: Neil Hall/EPA

Updated

Ireland’s taoiseach, Leo Varadkar has called a meeting of Ireland’s national emergency committee to assess the storm damage.

Kevin Moran, the minister for public works and flood relief, helped shore up buildings with sandbags at a photo op in Galway.

Updated

There are currently 86 flood warnings and 149 flood alerts in place across England, Wales and Scotland.

They include 44 flood warnings issued by the Environment Agency in England.

Coastal towns in south west England are among the worst hit.

High tides breached the sea wall in Perranporth on the North Cornish coast.

Ten miles down the coast in Portreath, part of the harbour wall was destroyed leaving tonnes of rubble on the beach (see earlier).

The high tide also breached the sea wall at St Ives.

The Met Office has satellite imagery of how the storm passed over the UK.

A woman watches waves crashing against the seafront in Auderville, Normandy, as storm Eleanor hits the northern part of France.
A woman watches waves crashing against the seafront in Auderville, Normandy, as storm Eleanor hits the northern part of France. Photograph: Charly Triballeau/AFP/Getty Images

Storm Eleanor has also been lashing the Normandy coast in northern France.

The Galway Latin Quarter has footage of a mini being driven through the heavily flooded coast road in Salthill, Galway on the Irish coast last night, as Atlantic waves continued to lap over the promenade.

Flooding, high tides and fallen trees have hit a number of rail routes.

There are currently no trains between North Llanrwst and Blaenau Ffestiniog in North Wales due to flooding; and an obstruction on the line led to cancellations between Barton-on-Humber and Ulceby in Lincolnshire.

There are also delays between Penzance in Cornwal and Plymouth in Devon due to “severe weather”; had trains between Norwich and Sheringham in Norfolk are running slowly after a fallen tree.

The Thames barrier is due to close at around 10.15am to protect London against the threat of flooding.

This will be 180th time the barrier has closed since it was constructed.

Some 27,000 homes and businesses are still without power in Ireland, according to the Irish broadcaster RTE.

Last night at the height of the storm 55,000 customers were without power, according to the supplier ESB Networks.

David Ilett, from the Portreath Arms hotel, has sent these pictures of damage to Portreath harbour wall.

Damage to Portreath harbour wall
Damage to Portreath harbour wall Photograph: David Ilett
Damage to Portreath harbour wall
Damage to Portreath harbour wall Photograph: David Ilett

Speaking to the Guardian he said:

It is the upper part of the harbour wall that has gone. The water normally only reaches there at very very high tide so it must have been a massive tide – at 5.10am when it was high tide.

Normally it just only touches that part during bad weather. This time its broken the wall through. Council officials are there taking photographs.

It could affect the integrity of the rest of the harbour. It has pushed all the masonry across an inner section. I was surprised to see it, it wasn’t that bit of the wall that I thought would go.”

Updated

Police in Cornwall have confirmed that part of the harbour wall in Portreath collapsed in the storm, PA reports.

Cornwall Police said they were called at around 5.50am due to a very high tide and water coming on to the road.

Closer to shore, cracks began to form in the harbour wall and water poured through it, while some steps collapsed.

A spokeswoman for Cornwall Police said a 25ft to 30ft section was later swept further out to sea.

She said: “There is no risk to anybody, Highways England are putting bags along the road and there are barriers up as well.”

Portreath harbour wall hit

A section of the harbour wall in Portreath on the north Cornish coast has been destroyed by high waves.

Updated

A very high tide was recorded in Workington on the Cumbria coast.

Updated

Ireland’s Met Office warns that “a combination of high tides and exceptionally high seas will result in coastal damage and further flooding”.

Waves have come over the top of the promenade in Salthill, Galway, “but not more than usual”, according to the council.

Summary

Welcome to live coverage of the latest disruption caused by Storm Eleanor, the fifth named storm of the season.

A Met Office yellow warning for “very strong winds” is in place for most of the UK.

Around 20,000 households in Northern Ireland had power cuts overnight, and 3,000 homes are still without electricity.

High winds and waves have forced the closure of the main rail line between Penzance in Cornwall and Plymouth in Devon.

The Environment Agency has imposed 50 flood warnings and a further 111 flood alerts across England.

Gusts of up 100mph were recorded in exposed spots overnight.

Our latest news story has more on how the storm is hitting travel:

Widespread disruption is expected on Wednesday after the storm swept across the country overnight, carrying heavy rain, hail and thunder and lightning.

Several bridges were closed due to high winds and there were numerous reports of fallen trees blocking roads including the M25.

Overturned vehicles forced closures on the A1M, M6 and M5, where a recovery operation was under way to clear up the contents of a lorry left spilled on the road.

An object in the overhead lines between London Paddington and Hayes reduced the number of trains leaving the station, while power outages halted rail services between Letchworth Garden City and Cambridge.

The Severn River Crossing and the Orwell Bridge in Suffolk were closed in the early hours due to strong winds.

Highways England said there was a possibility that the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge would have to close and the east tunnel of the Dartford Crossing had been shut in case it had to take diverted traffic.

Police forces in Cumbria, Suffolk, Norfolk and Humberside were among those to issue warnings that downed trees had blocked routes.

Isle of Man police said infrastructure staff worked through the night to remove trees from the roads, while there were multiple reports of roofs coming off buildings, flooding and mud debris.

The States of Jersey police said many roads remain closed due to fallen trees, stormy weather and high waves.

In Cheshire, the RSPCA was called to a road in Poynton where a swan had taken up residence in a puddle, blocking traffic.

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