Police declare ‘main incident’ as Storm Gerrit batters Britain: MILES of automobiles are trapped in blizzards on Scotland’s A9 with householders rescued from flooded houses, motorways gridlocked and trains cancelled

Police in Scotland have declared a ‘main incident’ as Britain is battered by as much as 80mph gales, torrential rain and blizzards.

Disruption brought on by Storm Gerrit has introduced distress for travellers on their method dwelling from the Christmas holidays throughout the nation as excessive velocity winds and heavy rain trigger delays to highway, rail, air and ferry transport.

Scottish authorities have warned individuals to not journey after ‘miles of autos’ had been stranded for as much as 4 hours in heavy snow on the A9 at Dalnaspidal in Perthshire after the principle highway was struck by a blizzard. 

Practice operators have suggested clients to not journey as many providers into Scotland have been suspended. Some rail passengers have been left stranded till a minimum of tomorrow and had been informed to ebook inns which they’ll declare again.

British Airways has cancelled 18 flights from London‘s Heathrow attributable to air visitors management restrictions. This consists of flights to Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Jersey and Manchester, and Barcelona, Berlin, Madrid and Paris Charles de Gaulle.

Extreme flooding in Scotland has additionally pressured residents to flee their houses in Cupar, with some rescued by emergency providers groups utilizing specialist boats introduced in from Perth and Stirling. 

The Met Workplace imposed 9 warnings till the early hours of tomorrow with the storm additionally set to deliver three inches of rain and eight inches of snow. It comes as:

• LNER, Avanti West Coast and CrossCountry all imposed ‘don’t journey’ warnings;
• British Airways cancelled 18 flights at London Heathrow because of the climate;
• The Port of Dover in Kent warned drivers of three-hour queues this afternoon;
• Wind gusts peaked at 106mph and there have been a reported 2,852 energy cuts.

Meteorologists additionally warned of delays for high-sided autos on uncovered routes and bridges, flooding on roads, doable energy cuts and disruption to ferries and planes.

** Have YOU been hit by the storm and are you stranded on roads or at stations together with King’s Cross? E-mail your tales and photos to: [email protected] **

Meteorologists additionally warned of delays for high-sided autos on uncovered routes and bridges, flooding on roads, doable energy cuts and disruption to ferries and planes. 

A rainfall gauge on the Nice Langdale Valley within the Lake District has seen the very best accumulation thus far, with 77.6mm – almost half the same old 178mm month-to-month rainfall for December, the Met Workplace stated.

The quickest recorded wind gusts thus far are 86mph at Inverbervie on the north-east coast of Scotland, 84mph at Truthful Isle and 83mph at Capel Curig, north Wales, the forecaster stated. Round 2-3cm of snow have fallen in Aviemore within the Cairngorms.

Drivers had been at a standstill on the A9 at Dalnaspidal in Perthshire attributable to blizzard situations with snowploughs unable to assist as a result of they had been caught behind automobiles.

Highland Council declared a serious incident due to ‘miles of autos’ caught in ‘very extreme situations’, with companies now prioritising probably the most weak drivers. 

The identical highway was additionally hit by extreme flooding 30 miles away at Ballinluig with Police Scotland urging individuals to keep away from the route amid ‘difficult climate situations’.

Motorist Jeremy Bedford stated he had been ‘stationary southbound on the A9 close to Dalwhinney for almost 4 hours’, asking: ‘Ought to we be planning to spend the night time right here?’ Shaun Dellenty added: ‘Enormous strains of stationary visitors and extreme gales and drifting snow. Not moved for 2 and a half hours. Seen one snowplough thus far.’

Carlos Rodriguez tweeted: ‘A9 in Scotland visitors has been caught for hours, individuals broke out the snow shovels to filter the highway themselves.’ And X consumer Blanchy13 stated: ‘Two hours caught thus far. Two youngsters asking each two minutes once we can transfer.’

Scottish and Southern Electrical energy Networks stated round 27,000 houses have suffered energy cuts at this time as fallen timber, branches, and different particles have broken energy strains. 

It added that as of 4:30pm at this time, energy had been resored to round 8,500 properties, whereas over 18,500 had been nonetheless with out energy and ‘additional disruption’ is  anticipated throughout the east coast. 

The Scottish Premiership soccer match between Rangers and Ross County at Ibrox needed to be postponed as a result of the away crew had been unable to journey to Glasgow. 

The M48 Severn Bridge in Gloucestershire is closed in each instructions attributable to robust winds, Nationwide Highways stated.

Drivers on the M4 Prince of Wales Bridge, suggested instead route, are dealing with 90-minute delays after a crash.

Ferry operator Crimson Funnel, which supplies providers between Southampton and Cowes on the Isle of Wight, cancelled its Crimson Jet passenger providers attributable to robust winds.

Hovercraft providers between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight had been additionally suspended.

Eighteen BA return home journeys to Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Jersey and Manchester, and to Barcelona, Berlin, Madrid and Paris Charles de Gaulle in mainland Europe, had been axed attributable to air visitors management restrictions. 

These with pre-booked tickets for journey between Preston and both Edinburgh or Glasgow can board trains tomorrow or Friday.

Flooding between Lockerbie and Carlisle means all rail strains are blocked between these stations.

A ScotRail prepare en route from Dundee to Glasgow was severly broken by a falling tree at this time brought on by Storm Gerrit. Footage present the carnage brought on to the entrance of the prepare, with the motive force reportedly unhurt following the horrific incident. 

A tree additionally fell on the road and caught hearth close to Dumbarton East Station in West Dunbartonshire, Community Rail Scotland stated, closing the road in each instructions. 

The prepare operator added that disprution to its providers will proceed tomorrow as maintainence crews will ‘want to examine all currrently shut routes’ for harm brought on by flooding and fallen timber. 

It stated in an replace: ‘Tomorrow, we’ll want to examine all at the moment shut routes for harm brought on by flooding/fallen timber – this’ll take a number of hours and may solely be accomplished in daylight. Disruption will proceed till every line is confirmed protected to reopen. @ScotRail @CalSleeper @LNER @CrossCountryUK’

London North Jap Railway (LNER), which runs providers between London and Scotland on the East Coast Major Line, revealed at this time that trains had ‘vital delays’ throughout its whole 956-mile community between King’s Cross and the Highlands.

Issues for LNER included flooding between Leeds and Harrogate and Berwick-upon-Tweed and Edinburgh, plus overhead wire harm north of the border. 

It stated: ‘Because of extreme climate clients are suggested to not journey at this time as providers are prone to be topic to vital delays and quick discover alterations or cancellations.’

Extreme climate brought on chaos throughout the community, with 9 ScotRail routes dealing with velocity restrictions whereas Northern and Transport for Wales providers had been badly hit. 

CrossCountry had a ‘don’t journey warning’ in place north of Newcastle; Avanti West Coast stated ‘don’t journey’ north of Preston following flooding between Lockerbie and Carlisle which was blocking all strains and in addition impacting TransPennine Specific trains; and there have been additionally points brought on by prepare employees shortages and monitor obstructions.

And the Port of Dover in Kent stated there was a three-hour wait time forward of French border controls for vacationer visitors as of midday at this time – up from only one hour at 7.30am.

Officers later stated that the ‘further processing time at this time is a results of employees illness inside Police aux Frontières’, including: ‘All groups are working arduous to get everybody on their method as shortly as doable.’

Individually, there was main disruption to Thameslink and East Midlands Railway trains between London St Pancras and St Albans attributable to a signalling system fault; and Southeastern providers had been badly delayed by over-running engineering works.

The Atmosphere Company has issued 17 flood warnings, the place flooding is predicted, throughout England: six within the Midlands, 9 within the north of England and one in Devon. 

There are additionally 152 flood alerts, indicating the place flooding is feasible, in place throughout most components of the nation, apart from London. 

Gusts peaked at 106mph over the Cairngorm summit at this time, with the following highest at 76mph at Inverbervie in Aberdeenshire then 69mph at Stornoway within the Western Isles. The strongest on mainland England was 44mph at St Bees Head in Cumbria.

And 1000’s of individuals in England had been with out energy this morning, reported Sky Information which quoted knowledge from PowerOutages.com that put the whole at 2,852.

The Met Workplace has imposed 9 warnings at this time and tomorrow as follows:

• Rain – Wales – Midnight at this time till 4pm at this time;
• Rain and wind – Northern Eire – 2am at this time till 10am at this time;
• Wind – Southern England – 3am at this time till 6pm at this time;
• Rain – South West Scotland and northern England – 3am at this time till 6pm at this time;
• Wind – Northern Scotland – 3am at this time till 11.59pm at this time;
• Rain – North West England – 3am at this time till 6pm at this time;
• Rain and snow – Northern Scotland – 6am at this time till 9pm at this time;
• Wind – Western Wales and North West England – 6pm at this time till 3am tomorrow;
• Wind and snow – Shetland Islands – 9pm at this time till 6am tomorrow.

ScotRail stated main flooding in components of the Highlands meant there can be no trains between Inverness and Kyle of Lochalsh till a minimum of January 3, whereas it additionally warned velocity restrictions would trigger delays on 9 routes till 9am tomorrow.

The affected ScotRail routes had been between Glasgow Queen Road, Oban or Mallaig; Inverness and Wick; Edinburgh or Aberdeen and Inverness; Montrose and Inverurie; Edinburgh and Perth or Dundee; Edinburgh and Glenrothes with Thornton; Glasgow Queen Road and Aberdeen or Inverness; Glasgow Central and Wemyss Bay or Ardrossan Harbour or Largs or Prestwick City; and Glasgow Central and Carlisle.

Transport for Wales cancelled all trains between Llandudno and Blaenau Ffestiniog; imposed a late start-up for providers from Shrewsbury to Swansea and Llandrindod; and warned flooding between Hereford and Leominster may trigger cancellations or lengthy delays.

A tree fell on the road and caught hearth close to Dumbarton East station, closing the road in Scotland in each instructions, whereas these on Southern and South Western Railway confronted delays by Havant in Hampshire attributable to an ‘obstruction’ on the monitor within the Bedhampton space. 

Police Scotland stated officers in Dundee handled a collision on the A90 close to Inchture, including: ‘Please decelerate and drive to the climate situations.’ 

In the meantime a bit of the A82 which runs between Glasgow and Inverness by way of Fort William was closed attributable to a number of timber blocking the route in heavy snow. 

The M48 Severn Bridge was shut in each instructions between junctions one for Aust and two Chepstow attributable to robust winds, with drivers urged to make use of the M4 Prince Of Wales Bridge as a diversion. 

Visitors Scotland stated the A82 at Milton close to Glasgow was closed this morning in each instructions attributable to flooding, whereas Carmarthenshire Roads Policing informed motorists {that a} tree had fallen on the B4308 between Cwmbach and Farriers which had additionally taken out an influence line. 

In South Wales, Gwent Police stated emergency providers had been coping with a crash on Mountain Street in Cefn Golau.

And on the Isle of Wight, Hovertravel stated hovercraft providers had been cancelled this morning ‘attributable to opposed climate’.

There’s additionally disruption on the ferry community in Scotland, with NorthLink providers throughout the Pentland Firth to Orkney axed because of the climate.

CalMac ferries are additionally topic to delays and suspension throughout the west coast, with these travelling urged to verify if their providers are working.

In Hampshire, Forestry England stated all amenities had been closed on the Alice Holt Forest website at this time attributable to excessive winds, including: ‘We’re sorry to ask individuals to not go to Alice Holt Forest at this time.’ 

Nationwide Belief properties throughout the UK had been shut because of the excessive winds together with Croome in Worcestershire, Cotehele in Cornwall, Bodnant Backyard in Conwy and Seaton Delaval Corridor in Northumberland.

Met Workplace chief meteorologist Frank Saunders stated: ‘Storm Gerrit will run in the direction of western UK on Wednesday and convey with it potential impacts for a lot of the UK.

‘Winds throughout southern coastal areas of England might be robust, presumably peaking round 70mph on uncovered coastlines, however extra extensively round 50 to 60 mph inside the warning space.

‘Rain is a further hazard from Storm Gerrit, with lively climate fronts resulting in a moist day for a lot of.

‘Snow can be prone to trigger issues for some northern areas: solely briefly for a couple of upland routes throughout the Pennines and southern Scotland in a single day and early on Wednesday, however extra extensively to the north of the Central Lowlands later within the day.

‘Right here round 10 to presumably 20cm of snow could have an effect on a few of the highest routes, this combining with very robust winds to result in some troublesome journey situations. At decrease ranges a mixture of heavy rain and really robust winds will dominate.’

Additionally at this time, 1000’s of airline passengers risked lacking flights attributable to a number of signalling failures inflicting disruption to trains.

Operator East Midlands Railway stated the problem was stopping it from working providers between London St Pancras and Luton.

A Thameslink service calling on the airport was delayed by almost two hours.

Rail providers are anticipated to be disrupted for the remainder of at this time because of the fault between St Pancras and St Albans.

Thameslink issued an alert to passengers which stated: ‘Please don’t try journey between Bedford and London Bridge till additional discover.

‘The sooner disruption brought on by a number of sign failures has now reoccurred. As a result of stage of disruption, passengers are suggested to delay travelling till later.

‘For those who do resolve to journey, you will have to make use of different means on some or your whole journey, and you will have to permit a further 60 minutes to journey.’

A depot was additionally affected, inflicting delays to trains attributable to function early morning providers.

Talking about flight disruption at Heathrow at this time, a British Airways spokesman stated: ‘On account of air visitors management restrictions put in place due to Storm Gerrit, we now have needed to make some changes to our schedule at this time.

‘We have now apologised to our clients for any disruption to their journey plans and our groups are working arduous to get them on their method as shortly as doable.’

As well as, there was disruption on South Western Railway trains by Clapham Junction in South West London attributable to a separate signalling drawback.

Rail passengers additionally confronted a sequence of additional issues that didn’t look like associated to the storm.

There was disruption attributable to engineering works not being completed on time within the Nunhead space of South East London – affecting Southeastern providers between the capital and Kent, and cancelling Thameslink trains between London Blackfriars and Sevenoaks.

In the meantime CrossCountry cancelled providers between Nottingham and Cardiff Central attributable to a scarcity of prepare drivers.

It comes on high of pre-planned rail closures together with London Paddington which has been shut since Christmas Eve with no Heathrow Specific or direct Elizabeth line providers.

On the Elizabeth line platforms at Paddington are open for providers to and from Abbey Wooden and Shenfield. There is no such thing as a Elizabeth line between Paddington and Ealing Broadway. 

Transport for London (TfL) additionally has pre-planned half closures on the London Overground and Docklands Gentle Railway (DLR) at this time.

London Victoria station additionally has no Southeastern providers between till January 2, whereas Better Anglia providers between London Liverpool Road and Norwich are being disrupted by the Chelmsford space till New Yr’s Day.

The Met Workplace stated Gerrit – the seventh named storm of the present UK storm season – was named as a warning to individuals coming dwelling after the vacations.

Its meteorologist Simon Partridge stated: ‘As a result of extent of the warnings which are being issued, it was deemed {that a} named storm can be a good suggestion as a result of it can spotlight to the general public the danger related, notably as tomorrow is prone to be fairly a busy day on the roads with individuals travelling again dwelling from Christmas and issues like that.’

A storm is called when it’s deemed to have the potential to trigger medium or excessive impacts on the UK and/or Eire.

The Met Workplace and Met Eireann launched the scheme in 2015 to call storms as a part of efforts to boost consciousness of maximum climate occasions.

Mr Partridge stated moist and windy climate will cowl ‘just about the entire of the UK’, with vital snowfall in components of Scotland.

A yellow rain and snow warning is in place from 6am to 9pm throughout a lot of Scotland at this time.

‘There are wind warnings out for the south of England, throughout the English Channel coast,’ Mr Partridge added.

‘However we even have wind warnings in drive for components of western Wales, north-west England, Northern Eire, northern Scotland and the Northern Isles.’

He stated solely the central part of the UK doesn’t have a wind warning.

Wind warning areas can anticipate gusts of fifty to 60mph, with as much as 70mph on excessive floor and uncovered coasts. Some delays to highway, rail, air and ferry transport are possible, the Met Workplace stated.

‘When it comes to rain, we now have rain warnings out for the entire of Northern Eire, western Wales, north-west England, after which there is a mixed type of rain and snow warning for Scotland,’ Mr Partridge added.

Anyplace above 200 metres (650ft) in Scotland and the Northern Isles is prone to see some snow, he added.

Community Rail Scotland warned passengers velocity restrictions can be in place at this time and to verify for cancellations.

ScotRail buyer operations director Phil Campbell stated: ‘Sadly, we anticipate disruption to our providers because of the opposed climate, and clients can anticipate some adjustments to their journeys.

‘We might be working carefully with our colleagues at Community Rail Scotland to make sure we’re capable of hold individuals transferring as a lot as doable, however clients also needs to anticipate that their journeys will take longer than regular, and there may very well be some cancellations. ‘

The operator added: ‘We’re asking anybody with backyard gear equivalent to tents, trampolines or furnishings, to safe objects in order that they do not blow on to the tracks and intrude with lineside gear.’

The RAC has warned drivers to not underestimate the risks of excessive winds.

Spokesperson Simon Williams stated: ‘Whereas high-sided autos are most liable to being blown astray, automotive drivers will also be affected once they move lorries on the motorway and are all of a sudden hit by the complete drive of the wind on the opposite aspect.

‘Protecting each palms on the wheel always is the perfect recommendation, together with watching different autos very rigorously in order to not get caught out by any sudden adjustments in course.

‘Attending to motorways and main roads may be harder. Drivers ought to scale back their speeds and be on the look-out for fallen branches, and even timber, together with different particles.’

The RNLI urged these visiting the coast to train excessive warning, notably alongside uncovered cliffs, seafronts and piers.

Gareth Morrison, RNLI water security companion, stated: ‘The RNLI advises staying a protected distance away from the water and cliff edges because the situations may knock you off your toes or wash you into the ocean. It’s not price risking your life.’

Stein Connelly from Transport Scotland stated: ‘The Met Workplace has issued yellow climate warnings for giant components of the nation.

‘We’re seeing rain throughout south-west Scotland, rain and wind throughout the central belt, and in addition some snow throughout northern Scotland.

‘This kind of climate is not uncommon for this time of yr, however yellow warnings do imply the potential for vital journey disruption and that is what we’re seeing at this time throughout the highway and rail community with ferry providers additionally impacted.

‘We have now well-established plans with companions to answer these situations that are at the moment being progressed.

‘Our working firms are working arduous in opposed situations to take away fallen timber and clear roads of snow at the moment.’

He urged individuals to plan forward and to drive to situations.

He suggested drivers to verify the Visitors Scotland web site for issues on trunk roads and people utilizing public transport to verify with their operators.

Storm Gerrit comes lower than per week since Storm Pia lashed components of the UK within the countdown to the festive season. 

Winds of greater than 80mph battered northern components of the UK, with gusts of 81mph recorded at Brizlee Wooden close to Alnwick, Northumberland, and at Baltasound on Shetland, with 70mph gusts reported elsewhere within the North East of England.

** Have YOU been hit by the storm and are you stranded on roads or at stations together with King’s Cross? E-mail your tales and photos to: [email protected] **