Floods and wind cause chaos across the country

HEAVY rain and strong winds continued to cause travel problems in Scotland yesterday with flooding hitting many roads and ferries being disrupted.

More than two inches of rain caused flooding in many areas of Dumfries and Galloway. Parts of South Ayrshire and Upper Nithsdale were badly hit, including New Cumnock and near Kirkconnel the main A76 Dumfries to Kilmarnock road was flooded to a depth of three feet in places.

The A7 from Carlisle through the Scottish Borders was also hit by flooding south of Langholm as was the A701 Dumfries-Moffat road near St Anne's Bridge.

Driving conditions were hazardous on the M74 in South Lanarkshire and the M8 and some ferries to Northern Ireland from Stranraer and Cairnryan, which were cancelled on Thursday, were disrupted.

Caledonian MacBrayne ferry sailings to Colonsay were cancelled and disruptions were caused to services to Arran, Bute, Gigha, Iona, Islay, Mull, Skye and the Small Isles.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency issued two flood warnings - on the River Earn from downstream of Crieff to Bridge of Earn and on the River Nith downstream of Auldgirth, including Dumfries.

South of the Border conditions were improving after about 24 hours of winds, up to 100mph, and rain hammered many parts.

A woman died after being impaled on a branch when a falling tree hit her car in Wakefield, West Yorkshire on Wednesday night.

Blackpool's famous illuminations suffered damage estimated to be in the region of 1 million.