Three dead and 40,000 homes without power as Storm Babet hits Britain

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https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/oct/20/uk-weather-met-office-issues-second-red-warning-for-eastern-scotland

Three dead and 40,000 homes without power as Storm Babet hits Britain

Met Office issues rare second red warning for eastern Scotland for severe flooding and disruption

Severin Carrell - Scotland editor
Fri 20 Oct 2023 12.57 EDT

Eastern Scotland is braced for further heavy flooding and storm damage after the Met Office issued a second “danger to life” red weather warning, as the death toll from Storm Babet rose to three.

The emergency services rescued about 60 people from Brechin in Angus, but were unable to reach others stranded in their homes after the South Esk River surged to record heights, overwhelming flood defences erected seven years ago.

Police on Friday confirmed that three people have died in the storm. A man was swept away by a swollen brook in Shropshire on Friday and on Thursday, a van driver, 56, was killed by a fallen tree in Forfar. In a separate incident, a 57-year-old woman was swept to her death in the Water of Lee in Glen Esk.

The weather agency said the very rare red warning for severe flooding and disruption would cover parts of Angus and southern Aberdeenshire for the whole of Saturday, only hours after the first red warning for the region had lapsed at noon on Friday. It said another 100mm of rain could fall there on Saturday.

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1. Dog walker films winds lifting forest floor during Storm Babet in Scotland

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-67180162
(video at link)

Dog walker films winds lifting forest floor during Storm Babet in Scotland

A dog walker in Stirlingshire captured footage of winds lifting a forest floor as Storm Babet moved across Scotland - bringing high winds, heavy rain and flooding.

David Nugent-Malone was walking his dog Jake in Mugdock on a path the pair often visit.

"We’ve walked through that particular section literally hundreds of times before and have never seen anything like that", Mr Nugent-Malone told the BBC.

The forest around them was relatively calm after the strongest winds hit through the night before, but that particular pocket of woods seemed to "focus the wind to allow it to lift up the woodland floor," he added - saying the meshed together tree roots lifted like a "muddy table cloth".

Follow our live updates on Storm Babet here.

[eppur_se_muova]

2. That is one of the weirdest things I have ever seen!

I thought the title was just confused somehow -- but no, that's exactly what's shown in the video.

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4. A bit unnerving , too. nt

[Emrys]

5. For those who aren't Twitter-averse here's the video from David Nugent-Malone's Twitter feed:

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

I've seen toppled pines etc. in forests before with large plates of soil and roots attached, even camped in the lea of one, but never seen the process before they fell over.

I'm just glad his dog was OK - I kept thinking it was going to get squished.

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6. Thank you. nt

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3. "Sheepdog saves stranded ewes on Welsh farm as Storm Babet floods UK"

Sheepdog saves stranded ewes on Welsh farm as Storm Babet floods UK

The Independent

Oct 21 2023

A sheepdog came to the rescue of three ewes who had been cut off by floodwater as Storm Babet unleashed floods all over the UK.

Llyr Derwydd, 44, a farmer from near Ruthin in Wales, said he had gone to check on his sheep in Flintshire on Friday afternoon when he saw three ewes “stranded on this little spot on the field” having been “cut off basically by the water”.

With the water producing dangerous conditions for a rescue, sheepdog Patsy was the heroine of the hour.

Mr Derwydd said: “We thought we’d better go check, make sure all the sheep are safe, and that’s when we saw the three ewes stranded on this little spot on the field.

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