Storm Boelo batters northern Britain with 84mph gusts
More than 82,000 households without power and flooding blocking the Preston-Blackpool line, second named storm in as many days after Austen hit the south
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Waves crash over the promenade during Storm Boelo on Sunday in Largs, Scotland Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images
theguardian.com
More than 82,000 British households were without power on Sunday morning as Storm Boelo swept across the north of the country with gusts of 84mph, the second named storm to strike in as many days. Engineers had already reconnected 344,900 customers, the Energy Networks Association said. Amber wind warnings covering Scotland, parts of Northern Ireland and northern England down to Carlisle remain in force until 9pm, inside wider yellow warnings stretching across north Wales and much of the rest of the country.
The Met Office recorded 84mph gusts in Argyll and Bute, 83mph in Snowdonia and 82mph on the island of Tiree in the Inner Hebrides shortly after 4am, and warned of a danger to life from flying debris and crashing waves, advising people to stay indoors. By 7am, England's Environment Agency had issued 10 flood warnings, where flooding is expected, alongside 66 alerts; Scotland's environment agency had 34 warnings and 11 alerts active. Cumbria police reported a night of calls about localised flooding and fallen trees, and waves crashed over the promenade at Largs.
The disruption ran through the country's transport and events schedules. Hundreds of flights were delayed or cancelled at Dublin, Heathrow, Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow, the railway line between Preston and Blackpool North was blocked by flooding, and trees came down on the tracks near Dumfries. Liverpool's River of Light festival was cancelled 'in the interests of safety', London's Diwali on the Square was called off on the advice of independent health and safety experts, Edinburgh Castle closed its gates, and the Fountains Abbey estate in North Yorkshire shut for the day after its Saturday floodlight event was scrapped.
Boelo follows Storm Austen, which brought 76mph gusts to St Mary's Airport on the Isles of Scilly and 74mph to Aberporth in south Wales on Friday before dying out over the south-west. Boelo's amber warning was activated hours later, putting the season's first two named storms inside a single weekend.
Network Rail published photographs of a trampoline wedged beneath a train and a garden shed lying by the tracks, and asked people living near railway lines to firmly secure the objects in their gardens.