Storm Boelo lashes Britain, cutting power and cancelling flights

LONDON – Tens of thousands of homes were without power on Oct 25 as Storm Boelo battered northern parts of the United Kingdom with strong winds and heavy rain, disrupting travel services.Boelo is Britain’s second named storm of the season and quickly follows the first – Storm Austen, which brought strong gusts to southern areas of the country on Oct 23.More than 82,000 properties had no electricity as at 8am (4pm in Singapore), industry body the Energy Networks Association said in an update.It added that almost 350,000 customers had been reconnected since Austen hit.An amber wind warning was in place in Scotland, where collapsed trees, fallen cables and damaged surfaces prompted road and railway track closures.Winds gusts peaked at 135kmh in Argyll and Bute in western Scotland, according to the Met Office weather agency.Scotland was also under a yellow rain warning, along with northern England, with up to 80mm expected in some areas, bringing a chance of flooding.Also affected was Northern Ireland, where several flights out of Belfast were cancelled. There were also cancellations to some ferry services across the Irish Sea between Belfast and north-west England.The Met warned that Boelo brings a danger to life from flying debris and crashing waves and that people should stay indoors as much as possible.Meanwhile, Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, one of Europe’s busiest hubs, cancelled dozens of flights on Oct 25 because of strong winds caused by Storm Boelo.AFP counted some 90 Sunday flights cancelled on the airport website departures page, mainly to European cities including Paris, Rome and Dublin. Dozens of flights due to land at the airport were also cancelled or delayed.“Due to strong winds, fewer flights are expected to take off and land on Sunday, Oct 25,” the airport said. It did not say exactly how many flights were affected and the airport did not immediately respond to AFP’s query. AFP