Two dead and tens of thousands still without power after Storm Isha blasts UK

Two people have died and tens of thousands of homes remain without power after Storm Isha battered the UK with gusts of up to 99mph.

Transport services largely recovered on Monday though some roads remained closed and rail lines blocked, while dozens of schools were shut.

The next storm due to hit the UK and Ireland has been named Storm Jocelyn, which is expected to cause strong winds from Tuesday night into Wednesday morning.

An 84-year-old man died during Storm Isha after the car in which he was a front seat passenger crashed into a fallen tree in Grangemouth, Falkirk, Police Scotland said.

The incident happened on the A905 Beancross Road at around 11.45pm during an amber weather warning issued by the UK’s Met Office which covered the whole country.

A man in his 60s was killed in a crash involving two vans and a fallen tree in Limavady, Co Londonderry, on Sunday night, the Police Service of Northern Ireland said.

The man who died was driving a Vauxhall Vivaro van in Broad Road at around 9.45pm on Sunday.

The UK Met Office issued an amber warning for wind covering western and northern Scotland from 6pm on Tuesday until 8am on Wednesday.

Less serious yellow warnings were issued for wind across much of the UK north of Oxford and Peterborough, and for rain in an area of western Scotland stretching from the border with England to near Inverness.

Northern Ireland Electricity Networks said at noon that 24,000 customers remained without power due to the storm.

That is in addition to 30,000 who have been reconnected following repairs.

There were also power cuts affecting thousands of people in north-west England, while more than 170,000 properties in the Republic of Ireland were without power.

Fallen trees affected transport, with Traffic Scotland reporting stretches of the M9 and M74 among the roads closed, while the A1 southbound was blocked at Thorntonloch because of an overturned lorry.

High winds forced the closure of the Tay Road Bridge, M48 Severn Bridge and the A66 in Durham and Cumbria between the A1(M) and the M6, while the Humber Bridge, A19 Tees Flyover and A628 Woodhead Pass in Derbyshire were among stretches closed to high-sided vehicles.

A number of people were rescued by firefighters from flooded roads in the Yorkshire Dales.

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue said crews were sent to Morton Bridge, at Morton-on-Swale, in the early hours of Monday morning and helped the occupants from four trapped vehicles.

One woman who was rescued, Charlie Curry, told ITV Calendar News: “It was definitely a terrifying experience at the time.

“But I made it out alive and everyone’s all right. Just let’s see how the van’s doing.”

Fallen trees and flooding caused ScotRail to suspend all services from 7pm on Sunday until around 11am on Monday when some lines reopened.

A Network Rail spokesman “hundreds of engineers” were deployed with chainsaws and cherry pickers to remove debris from tracks.

Most routes in England and Wales were open on Monday but with some residual delays.

The Met Office said the highest recorded wind speed during Storm Isha was 99mph at Brizlee Wood in Northumberland, with gusts of 90mph at Capel Curig in Snowdonia on Sunday.

A rare red warning for wind in north-east Scotland was in place until 5am on Monday, with amber warnings covering much of the UK until 6am and further yellow warnings covering the entire country until noon.

Heavy downpours battered some places, with 28 flood warnings in place in England and 50 in Scotland.

The Met Office said Storm Isha – the ninth named storm to hit the UK since the season began in September – moved away from the UK on Monday but conditions remained windy with a mixture of sunny spells and scattered showers.