Storms claim at least five lives

Wednesday January 12, 2005

At least five people are thought to have died in the hurricane-strength storms that hit Scotland, Northern Ireland and parts of northern England, it emerged today.

Police in the Western Isles are reported to have recovered a body from a car in the sea off the island of Benbecula, and to have spotted the body of a man in the water nearby. A search was ongoing for four people missing from the village of Creagorry on the island and police could not rule out the possibility that more bodies might be found.

The strongest winds of the storms that began to batter the country last night were recorded in the Western Isles, with gusts of 124mph in North Rona and 105mph on Barra, an island just south of Benbecula.

On the Scottish mainland, a car driver died in a collision between his vehicle and a lorry on the A1 north of Berwick. In Tayside, a van driver was killed when he collided with a lorry on the A90 near Forfar. In Northern Ireland a lorry was blown off the Foyle Bridge in Derry, killing its driver.

Emergency services in Scotland were overwhelmed by calls, with residents in the Highlands and islands being advised not to ask for ambulance assistance unless faced with a life-threatening situation. The Diabaig and Scalpay areas of the Scottish Highlands found themselves without a 999 service for a short while early today.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency issued 21 flood watches and 13 flood warnings during the course of the storms. This afternoon, 17 flood watches and four warnings remained in force.

Fort William Coastguard had to evacuate five elderly residents from 4ft flood waters in their housing complex, while Oban Coastguard rescued a man who was floating away inside his camper van. High tides were today expected to complicate matters.

A Spanish fishing boat missing off the Western Isles overnight was found at first light this morning by an RAF Nimrod with all 19 crew accounted for. The Cibeles - which was 290km west of Lewis when it triggered its distress beacon late last night - was due to be towed back to shore and its crew evacuated.

The Stornoway coastguard watch manager, Duncan Mackay, said the storms were the worst he had experienced for several years. "Some of our coastguard team members out on call tonight may be going back to homes without roofs themselves, and some staff will not be able to get home at all," he said at the height of last night's storms.

Power supplier Scottish Hydro Electric said 60,000 customers had been cut off by the freak weather in Argyll, the Western Isles and Highlands, and in the central belt. Around 45,000 are still without power.

A spokesman last night reported 150 major faults on the network across Scotland. "It seems as fast as we can repair infrastructure the wind is blowing it down again," he said. "We have had to stand our repair staff down for the night, because it's simply too dangerous for them to work in these high winds."

In Northern Ireland, 26,000 homes lost electricity overnight, and around 1,000 are yet to have power restored. In the north of England, 10,000 homes in Hexham, Northumberland, remain without water.

Parts of Cumbria that were flooded by storms at the weekend, were hit again last night, with coastguards called out to rescue a couple trapped by floodwater in a car near Easton.