Tropical storm slams into Ireland, UK
2011-09-12 16:33
Dublin - Tropical Storm Katia shut down roads, bridges and sporting events on Monday in Ireland and Britain, where residents braced for the strongest wind gusts in 15 years.
Forecasters in both countries said on Monday's gusts would top 125km/h as the storm - previously a hurricane as it roared across the Atlantic - made driving, shipfaring and even walking dangerous in broad swathes of Ireland, Scotland and northern England.
Most ferry services between Ireland and Britain were cancelled, and fishing boats along the Atlantic coasts of Ireland and Scotland were warned to head into port.
Britain's government forecasting service, the Met Office, told the public to be ready for the strongest winds since October 1996, when the tail end of Hurricane Lili killed five Britons and caused an estimated £150m of damage there.
The Met Office said winds were averaging 88km/h while the strongest reported gust so far was 128km/h at a mountain station in North Wales. Gusts in the Northern Ireland border town of Castlederg reached 118km/h.
Heavy rainfall was expected to hit the north of Ireland and central Scotland, where Transport Minister Keith Brown reassured travellers that emergency crews were ready to handle accidents, road blockages and power outages.
"Robust contingency arrangements are in place so people should not panic," Brown said.
The Tour of Britain cycling race cancelled Monday's planned second stage across northern England after deeming the course's most exposed and elevated points too dangerous.
Ireland, which is regularly buffeted by strong Atlantic winds, also warned of exceptionally dangerous driving conditions and the risk of widespread coastal flooding.
Towns along Ireland's Atlantic coast last experienced heavy flooding in November 2010.
A bridge spanning a bay in County Donegal, northwest Ireland, was closed on Monday as a precaution, while fallen trees obstructed roads in several other parts of the island, including Limerick in the southwest.
Ireland's Electricity Supply Board said its engineers were trying to restore power to about 11 000 homes along the Irish Republic's border with Northern Ireland.
Another 2 000 homes in Dublin lost power because of toppled electricity lines.
Authorities in Norway, Sweden and Denmark said they expected gale-force winds to arrive there on Tuesday.
Ireland and Britain periodically catch the tail-end of Atlantic hurricanes as they travel northeast with the Gulf Stream and weaken into tropical storms.
The Met Office said Britain and Ireland felt the winds of one former hurricane in 2009, three in 2006, two in 2000, one in 1998 and one in 1996, when Lili's winds topped 145km/h and brought widespread disruption to Britain and Ireland.
Katia is the second major hurricane of the 2011 Atlantic hurricane season, forming two weeks ago near the west African islands of Cape Verde.
Katia travelled in a C-shape route toward the Caribbean and the eastern United States but didn't reach landfall there, then headed northeast to Europe.
- SAPA
