Storm Bert causes severe disruption in the United Kingdom and Ireland; at least one dead in England

Storm Bert, which hit the United Kingdom and Ireland on Saturday, November 23, killed at least one person in England. In Hampshire, in the south of the country, a sixty-year-old died after a branch fell on his car.

The violent winds and heavy snowfall caused by this depression also deprived tens of thousands of homes of electricity and disrupted transport. Around 100 flood alerts are currently in force across England, Wales and Scotland.

As of Saturday afternoon, almost 4,000 homes were without power in central, south-west England and south Wales, with 27,000 people also affected in north-west England. East of England, Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, electricity network operators said. In England, snowfall of up to 13 centimeters fell in some areas, with strong winds recorded at more than 130 kilometers per hour. In the west and north-west of Ireland, 60,000 homes, farms and businesses were also affected by power outages, the Irish public supplier ESB announced early this morning.

The “worst” is “yet to come”

A spokesman for the British trade organization Energy Networks Association, Ross Easton, warned that the situation could deteriorate further as the « pire » from this winter storm « rest[ait] future “.

Many roads, train and ferry lines had to be closed. Flooding has affected the west of Ireland and Northern Ireland, which were first affected on Friday evening. Jason Kelly, one of the heads of the Met Office, the British meteorological agency, described this storm as an event to “multiple risks”with a mix of snow, rain and wind for most of the weekend.

Much of the rest of England will remain on yellow alert throughout the weekend, and the east and south of the country are expected to see heavy rain overnight and during the day on Sunday.