Chaos as gales batter North
Jan 26 2008 by Dan Warburton, The Journal
GALE-force winds battered the North-East yesterday, causing damage to cars and buildings and leading to traffic chaos for thousands of people.
Winds reached speeds of 80mph, wreaking thousands of pounds worth of damage to cars, buildings and overhead power lines and hitting electricity supplies to hundreds of people across the region.
Stretches of the A1 were closed for long periods as police cleared nine overturned lorries and one wind-swept caravan.
Newcastle Airport was also affected, with four flights to and from Amsterdam cancelled and others re-routed. The outside lane of the A1(M) was closed to all vehicles at 4.15pm between junction 61 at the Bowburn interchange and south throughout the length of the motorway though County Durham to Scotch Corner.
Motorists sat in mile-long tailbacks as traffic ground to a halt.
And the wind also played havoc with people’s homes and personal property.
Tim Crook, 50, of Kensington Avenue, Gosforth, awoke to find that his £52,000 Lexus had been crushed under the weight of a tree ripped from the paving stones by a gust of wind.
He said: “At about four yesterday morning there was a knock on the door and I could see a policeman there – I thought the worst obviously.
“He just asked me if that was my car and I looked and there was a tree lying on it. They had to chop the tree down because it was on the back of the car and lying halfway into the road.”
The wind chaos began in the early hours of the morning with police and firefighters called to more than half a dozen incidents across the region.
A large tree was pulled up by its roots as winds threatened to crush caravans in Percy Wood Caravan Park, Swarland, Northumberland, at 5.30am, and Station Road in Ashington was shut at 11am when roof tiles rained down on customers at Currys electrical store. Cars and pedestrians were evacuated.
Earlier, engines rushed to deal with a garage on Ridge Way, North Seaton, Ashington, that was demolished by pounding winds, and in Hexham, classes at the Wentworth Leisure Centre were hit last night amid fears that guttering would blow down.
Tyne and Wear Fire Brigade was called to the Northern Rock building under construction at Rainton Bridge, near Sunderland. Fencing was put around the site after concerns that part of the roof might blow off.
