Extreme weather causes chaos (From Witney Gazette)

Extreme weather causes chaos

8:25am Friday 12th January 2007

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TWO drivers narrowly escaped serious injury as dozens of trees were blown down in the gale-force winds which battered Oxfordshire.

More than 600 homes and businesses across the county also lost electricity in the second successive day of extreme weather as winds hit speeds of 64mph.

County council highways engineers received 300 calls about fallen or damaged trees, including nine blown down in Oxford.

Father-of-five Bob Richens got out of his silver people carrier in Samphire Road, Blackbird Leys, just minutes before a 25ft plum tree collapsed on its roof.

And a woman was driving along Woodstock Road, Witney, when a tree toppled on to her car.

Click here for her story.

Mr Richens, 46, was visiting a friend's house in Samphire Road yesterday morning when the tree fell on his silver Vauxhall Zafira.

He said: "I'm lucky to be alive - if I had arrived just two minutes later, I would have been crushed.

"It's a big tree and I could have been killed - I feel very shaken by what has happened.

"My advice to other drivers is don't park under trees in these high winds."

Shortly after 6am, a large tree fell across the A361 Bloxham road near Chipping Norton, blocking part of the carriageway.

Two cars collided as the drivers tried to avoid the tree. They were not seriously injured and police were called to help clear the road.

Martin Dellar, a spokesman for the Highways Agency, said a driver on the M40 escaped serious injury after his lorry tipped over in high winds north of junction six at Lewknor.

John Hammond, a spokesman for the Met Office, said winds of 64mph were the highest recorded for the county yesterday at the weather station in Benson, near Wallingford.

Mr Hammond said wind speeds would fall to 40mph today and over the weekend, and there could be more heavy rain tomorrow.

Up to 700 homes and businesses in Abingdon, Didcot and Witney lost power supplies, said Southern Electric spokesman Ross Easton.

He said wind-borne debris had brought lines down.

The high winds followed heavy rain early on Wednesday, which flooded homes in west Oxfordshire.

There are now Environment Agency flood watch alerts - warnings of flooding to low-lying land and roads - on 11 sections of the River Thames, including the stretch from Sandford Lock to Day's Lock, Little Wittenham, and the River Cherwell, River Ock, River Evenlode, River Ray, River Thame, River Windrush and River Leach, west of Faringdon.

• Fire chiefs in Oxfordshire are asking residents to protect their homes or commercial properties against storm water if they have experienced flooding in the past.

As stormy weather looks set to continue, property owners are being urged to carry out a survey of their premises and to develop a plan to ensure that flood water is prevented from entering the building.

Further detailed advice on flood preparation is given in a county council booklet. For more details, visit www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/flooding or www.environment-agency.gov.uk

Click here for latest Oxfordshire flood alerts.

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