Deeside battered by Storm Doris and her ‘weatherbomb’

Deeside has taken a battering by gale force winds and rain today as storm Doris blew roofs off buildings, ripped trees from the roots and brought disruption to travel networks throughout to Flintshire and Cheshire.

Trains were cancelled and the line between Wrexham and Bidston was eventually closed due to fallen trees on the line, Arriva Trains Wales say a number of their trains have been damaged due to debris on tracks and will have to run Friday’s services fewer carriages.

Flintshire bridge was closed for 7 hours as gusts if wind reached 65mph, electricity lines were brought in Hawarden by a falling tree knocking power off at Hawarden farm Shop.

Work units on Dock Road had roofs blown off while trees were uprooted on Deeside Industrial Park, in Shotton, Northop and across many parts of Flintshire.

Roofs were ripped off garages at Riverside Park in Garden City, roof slates were seen flying through the air in Shotton.

Earlier in the day, the Met Office warned that the storm had undergone “Explosive Cyclogenisis” as it deepened, transforming it into a “weather bomb”.

A fallen tree on Deeside Industrial Park

North Wales Police received 1026 calls to their Joint Control Centre between 7am and 3pm, around double the normal number.

Has been a challenging shift for officers in #Flintshire, #stormdoris has caused a lot of disruption, council working hard to clear up.

— S/INSP Owain Lewis (@NWPS_InspLewis) February 23, 2017

Control Room staff, response officers, members of the Safer Neighbourhood Teams and officers from the Roads Policing Unit worked tirelessly to assist the public and partner agencies said Chief Inspector Paul Jones.

Chief Inspector Jones added:

I am delighted with how well all of the agencies involved worked together to the common goal of keeping the public safe.

We planned our response to Storm Doris together and it was this joint response that allowed us to succeed.

We would all like to thank the public for their patience and their timely reports.”

Officers are advising that issues such as fallen trees and branches are still causing issues on some minor roads across the region and are advising people to drive safely.

Trampolines appear to have become a modern day wind hazard, Marie sent us these pictures which she took in the early hours of this morning after her trampoline took off from its garden base and ending up embedded on the roof of her house.

The foot of the trampoline pierced through the bedroom ceiling, the fire service were called to help get it down.

Richard sent us this picture of a trampoline which flew through in Aston park taking fence panels with it.

You can see plenty more pictures from today’s storm on our live blog which cranked into action at around 6.30am –  yaaaawn….

Met Office Issues AMBER weather alert as ‘Storm Doris’ hits Flintshire – Updates