Storm Henk 'claims first victim' after motorist dies when tree falls on car during 80mph winds which battered Britain
3 January 2024, 10:18 | Updated: 3 January 2024, 10:43
A motorist has died after a tree fell on the car he was driving in Gloucestershire on Tuesday, police said, as strong winds and heavy rain battered the UK during Storm Henk.
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Police were called at around 3.15pm with reports of a large fallen tree on the A433 Tetbury Road near the junction with the A429.
Emergency services, including an air ambulance, attended the location which is between Tetbury and Cirencester. Despite the efforts of those at the scene a man aged in his 50s and from the Bath area died.
His next of kin and the coroner have been informed.
The road remains closed as recovery and investigation work continues and motorists are asked to find alternative routes.
The high winds and heavy rain during Storm Henk brought on power cuts, transport troubles, property damage and disruption on Tuesday.
The strongest gales were recorded at the Needles Old Battery in the Isle of Wight, where wind speeds reached 94mph. Gusts of 81mph were reached at Exeter Airport in Devon, and top winds hit 71mph at the Isle of Portland in Dorset and also at Mumbles Head in Glamorgan.
The weather is set to improve in the rest of the week, but problems stemming from Tuesday's bad weather remain on some railway lines.
The storm brought chaos but also acts of heroism as emergency service workers and members of the public stepped in to help stricken people to safety. A passer-by rescued a three-year-old and an adult stuck in a car in a Birmingham flood, then secured it to a bridge to stop it floating away in the fast-moving waters.In Worcester, a man rescued a woman from the River Severn after spotting her floating "like a mannequin" in the freezing water.
A woman who was crushed by a fallen tree in Orpington, was rushed to hospital with injuries that are not thought to be life-threatening. She was hit by the tree and trapped underneath it just after 3pm on Station Approach, on Tuesday.
Images showed a car destroyed by a fallen tree in the south-east London suburb of Bromley.
Photos also showed a tree that had fallen in a residential street in Forest Hill, in south-east London. Over 100,000 homes were left temporarily without power during the storm, with 38,000 still unconnected as of Tuesday evening. Most affected households are in the south-west of England.
In Sutton, south London, video captured the moment scaffolding collapsed after being battered by Storm Henk's winds. Scaffolding also collapsed in Greenwich.
Sutton scaffolding collapses in Storm Henk
The Met Office did have wind and rain warnings in place on Tuesday but these have since expired. But 326 flood warnings were still in place on Wednesday morning in England, as well as 368 less severe flood alerts.
Around 1,000 people were even forced to abandon their caravans in the Billing Aquadrome in Northampton due to flooding concerns.
Linda Page, who had been holidaying in the camp, said: "It is terrible, the flood warning siren reminds me of the noise of the air raid sirens in World War II."
The River Ouse in York burst its banks due to the recent rainfall brought in by Storm Henk, with train lines and roads blocked due to the flooding.
Storm Henk brought travel chaos on Tuesday, and problems on the railways were expected to continue through Wednesday.
Greater Anglia said train services were experiencing "severe disruptions" in the late hours of Tuesday night due to the storm with "multiple incidents" affecting services across the network.
A statement said: "Services on other lines may be cancelled, delayed, or revised. Greater Anglia and Network Rail will be working overnight to restore services and minimise disruption on Wednesday 3 January."
A joint statement from South Western Railway and Network Rail on X, formerly Twitter, said on Wednesday morning that disruptions linked to the storm will continue throughout the day.
"We are very sorry for the disruption customers experienced yesterday, due to the serious and widespread impact of Storm Henk," the statement said.
"The severe winds led to trees on the line damaging or delaying trains in multiple locations across our network."Thameslink said there were "multiple weather-related incidents across the entire network" on Tuesday.
The severe weather was due to impact the service until 10am on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, several London Underground lines faced disruption while the Elizabeth line was suspended between London Paddington, Reading and Heathrow due to a power supply issue.
The District Line and Bakerloo line had severe delays.Good service had resumed on most Tube lines by Wednesday morning
.Storm Henk also caused delays to and from Heathrow Airport because of the winds on Tuesday.
Roads and motorways were also impacted by the storm, with severe delays on parts of the M25 on Tuesday.
Chief Meteorologist Paul Gundersen said: "Our latest analysis of the forecast shows an increase in the likelihood of very strong wind gusts across parts of southern Wales and England, which is why we have issued this amber warning this morning and named Storm Henk.
"Storm Henk will initially bring very strong winds to the South West of England and southern Wales, with gusts of up to 80mph possible.
"As Storm Henk moves north-eastwards across the south of the UK through Tuesday, the strongest winds will also move eastwards, across the south Midlands, Home Counties and East Anglia through the afternoon and evening."
