Rescue services kept busy as storms hit

Mar 11 2008 by Steffan Rhys, Western Mail

HOMES were flooded and hit by power cuts yesterday as winds of more than 80mph battered Wales and the rest of the UK.

Travellers by sea, air, rail and road faced delays and thousands of homes lost power as trees crashed down on lines, as the Met Office said parts of the South Wales coast experienced gales of up to 82mph.

And there were warnings last night that there could be more to come, with severe weather warnings in place for most of the country through today and tomorrow.

The Environment Agency also had seven low-level “flood watches” in place across South Wales last night, at the Wye and Usk estuaries, on the Carmarthenshire coast between Pendine and Hendy, on the Ceredigion coast between Aberystwyth and Cardigan, along most of the Pembrokeshire coast and at Swansea Bay and the Gower peninsula.

However, there was some disruption along the Welsh coast, with coastguards in North Wales kept busy by people who ignored warnings to stay away from the sea.

When an exceptionally high tide hit Barmouth yesterday morning, many people chose to play “chicken” – some in their cars – with waves that crashed over the north end of the promenade.

At Holyhead, a man fell and injured himself after choosing to walk his dog on the breakwater.

And a team of coastguards was dispatched to nearby Trearddur Bay, where people were playing “wave-dodging games” and taking photographs.

Further south, Milford Haven coastguard said there had been very few problems.

Around 3,000 homes in South Wales were left without power yesterday after falling trees crashed through power lines on Sunday night. Homes in the Neath valley, Caerleon, Haverfordwest and parts of Swansea were affected.

Phil Davies, Western Power’s network services manager for Wales, said the power cuts were also caused by lines touching each other or “arcing” in high winds.

Later a spokesman said the company was working flat out to try to rectify the problems. He added that as some customers regained power, others lost it.

“It’s not the same 3,000 people off all the time,” he said. Last night 500 remained without power.

In St Brides, Newport, 170 people were evacuated from the Lighthouse Park mobile-home estate, spending Sunday night at hotels and the city leisure centre before being allowed to return yesterday.

A Ceredigion County Council spokeswoman said some homes in Cardigan were flooded and council workers had been putting down sandbags since early yesterday.

The pier road in Aberystwyth was shut after small boulders and water were thrown over the pier.

In Pembrokeshire, several roads were closed but all apart from the Newgale to Druidston road had reopened by yesterday afternoon. Seawater flooded Newgale’s front up to 30cm.

Some houses in Fishguard’s Lower Town and commercial properties in Haverfordwest suffered “limited” flooding after the rivers Cleddau and Gwaun burst their banks, a roof was blown off a bungalow extension in Freshwater East and in Solva a garage roof was blown on to the roof of the adjoining house.

An unused single-engined aircraft was flipped over at nearby Withybush airfield and crushed.

Wales’ transport network was also affected. The storm caused severe disruption to trains west of Swansea, and passengers on other Welsh routes experienced delays because of line obstructions and temporary speed restrictions.

Trains were suspended between Machynlleth and both Aberystwyth and Pwllheli yesterday morning, with replacement buses provided where road conditions allowed. Arriva Trains Wales had begun operating close to a normal service by the afternoon.

Trains between Pembrey and Burry Port and Llanelli were also suspended. Some Irish Ferries and Stena Line ferries were cancelled.

Met Office spokesman Barry Gromett said yesterday, “Tuesday and Wednesday will be blustery days but the winds will not be as strong as we saw on Monday. They will be closer to around 30mph though later on Tuesday and into Wednesday there will be another bout of severe gales but perhaps confined more to Snowdonia ”