Storm Babet unleashes carnage: Britain faces a second round of extreme weather TODAY after London is deluged by an inch of rain overnight and woman, 57, is killed in Scotland

Storm Babet is turning its fury on England after battering much of Scotland, where 70mph winds and several inches of rainfall pushed rivers to breaking point and a 57-year-old woman was swept to her death.

More than an inch (25.4mm) of rain fell on parts of England overnight, and carnage unfolded on the roads as weather warnings covered most of the country with the exception of Cumbria, south Wales and the south-west.

Yellow warnings are in effect across the south-east, north Wales, the Midlands and the north, the entirety of Northern Ireland and eastern Scotland and the Highlands; amber ‘severe’ warnings are in place down the spine of England and on Scotland’s east coast.

A rare red ‘danger to life’ warning remains in place across parts of Angus and Perthshire, where residents have been told to prepare to evacuate as the River South Esk burst its banks overnight. Thousands of homes were without power last night.

Police confirmed that the body of a 57-year-old woman was found after she was swept into the Water of Lee in the Glen Esk valley of Angus on Thursday afternoon – officers say there were no suspicious circumstances.

Four flood warnings have been issued by the Environment Agency’s Floodline service in Sandsend, North Yorkshire; Bridlington, East Yorkshire; the Tyne estuary and in areas surrounding the River Maun in Nottinghamshire.

The agency also has 79 flood alerts in effect across the rest of England. The Met Office has also issued more than a dozen warnings for heavy rain and high winds covering most of Britain.

In London, a driver had a lucky escape on Thursday night after their white Audi Q3 overturned on the North Circular; the Met Police said they escaped serious injury.

Pictures from the capital on Friday morning showed commuters battling deep puddles and standing water.

Trunk roads across the country have also been closed or diverted amid dangerous weather conditions. 

National Highways said the A15 Humber Bridge between North Lincolnshire and East Yorkshire is closed in both directions to “high-sided and vulnerable vehicles” due to strong winds.

Several sections of major Scottish roads are closed due to Storm Babet, Traffic Scotland said, including parts of the A85, A9 and A90 across Tayside and Aberdeenshire, as well as the A7 in Langholm, Dumfries and Galloway, due to a fallen tree.

Motorists have been advised to take care crossing bridges including the Erskine Bridge, Queensferry Crossing and the Skye Bridge. 

However, motoring groups have warned drivers to consider whether their journeys are truly necessary – and to consider delaying them until conditions clear up. 

RAC spokesman Rod Dennis said the weather is making driving challenging, adding: ‘We urge drivers to heed the warnings, especially where flooding has already happened or is likely over the next few days.

‘Drivers should never attempt to drive through floodwater as the risks are just too great. It’s vital anyone who absolutely has to travel prepares themselves for a longer journey, or considers waiting until the storm has passed before making it.’

AA patrol of the year Nick Powell said it is ‘very likely trees and debris will be littering the roads’, adding: ‘As always in wet and windy weather, leave plenty of space behind other vehicles and adjust your speed to suit the conditions, especially when crossing bridges or passing high-sided vehicles.

‘There may be traffic delays so make sure you bring essentials with you on your journey, even if it is only short, such as warm layers, a hot drink and a fully charged mobile phone.’

ScotRail said train services remain suspended on several routes in north and north-east Scotland across Aberdeen, Perthshire and Fife – affecting some Glasgow and Edinburgh routes.

Caledonian Sleeper services tonight between Aberdeen, Fort William and Inverness and London Euston (in both directions) have been cancelled. Services between Glasgow and Edinburgh and London Euston are set to be running as scheduled but may arrive later than planned due to speed restrictions.

CrossCountry said services will terminate at Edinburgh, not running north towards Aberdeen or west towards Glasgow Central. No alternative transport is available. Delays are expected between Newcastle and Edinburgh due to speed restrictions.

LNER said there will be no services operating north of Edinburgh today, and a ‘do not travel’ message is in place for this part of the route.

And services between Chester and Crewe have been suspended because of flooding on the line, Avanti West Coast said. 

Severe flood warnings have been expanded for the River Esk in Scotland, including into Aberdeenshire; authorities have warned it could burst its banks.

Fire crews and the coastguard began evacuating residents from the town of Brechin, Angus on Thursday night – knocking on residents’ doors advising them to leave the area.

Dramatic scenes broadcast live on BBC Breakfast showed Scottish Fire and Rescue Service workers in dinghies taking residents of the east coast Scottish town to safety; three evacuation centres have been set up to support the displaced. 

There are concerns that the ‘worst is yet to come’, as the slow moving storm works its way north, bringing near record amounts of precipitation with it in Scotland and parts of northern England.

In an extraordinary update on social media, Angus Council begged residents to follow orders to leave if asked by police or rescue workers.

It said: ‘We completely understand that it is very hard to leave your home but parts of Brechin, and increasingly other parts of Angus, are now only accessible via boat.

‘If you think that you are in danger of flooding, PLEASE DON’T LEAVE IT TOO LATE. If asked to evacuate, please do so, hard as it is.’ 

Scotland’s First Minister, Humza Yousaf – who lives in Dundee, just south of Angus – shared the post, tweeting: ‘I cannot stress how dangerous condition are in Brechin in particular. Listen to the advice… it is for your own safety. Situation will worsen as rainfall continues.’

Councillor Jill Scott, who lives in Brechin, said the floods are ‘horrific’ with people trapped and hundreds of homes flooded.

She told PA a family of three – a woman in her 60s, her son and her grandson – contacted her at around 5am having left their ground floor flat to huddle in an upstairs hallway for warmth.

They are unable to be rescued due to the force of the floodwaters, the independent councillor said, adding: ‘It’s all white water running round there. It’s like a river.’

She went on: ‘It’s horrific. It’s just absolutely horrendous. I’ve never seen anything like it.

“People are trapped in closes…Some have been stuck there for hours. The boats are trying to get to them. They can’t get to them because the current is too strong.

“There will be hundreds of houses flooded. It’s unbelievable. It’s devastating. I don’t know what the council’s going to do to be honest – how many people they are going to have to rehome. People will have lost everything.”

The Met Office said some communities could be cut off for several days by severe flooding, while the British Geological Survey has warned the storm could also cause landslides in Scotland.

Gusts in excess of 60mph are likely on Friday, with particularly poor conditions on immediate coastlines with large waves adding to the list of hazards.

The Met Office says the highest amount of rainfall recorded since the start of yesterday has been 164mm (6.4in) at Waterside Perth in Scotland.

But this is still way off the record, after some 238mm of rain was measured at Sloy Main Adit in Argyll & Bute between 9am on January 17, 1974 and 9am the following day.

This is the highest total on record in Scotland for what the Met Office calls a ‘rainfall day’: the 24 hours from 9am to 9am.

The highest equivalent total recorded in England is 279mm, on July 18, 1955 at Martinstown in Dorset, while the highest in Wales is 211mm, on November 11, 1929 at Lluest Wen Reservoir in Mid Glamorgan.

The highest in Northern Ireland is 159mm, recorded on October 31, 1968 at Tollymore Forest in County Down.

The highest total for any 24-hour period in the UK is 341.4mm, recorded from 6pm December 4, 2015 to 6pm the following day at Honister Pass in Cumbria.

Deputy First Minister Shona Robison has said the ‘worst impacts are yet to come’ with 10,000 homes across Britain being without power in addition to the evacuations in Scotland.

One river in Perth and Kinross was found to have tripled in height to more than four feet in the space of just 12 hours. 

Police were forced to close off a street in Brechin, Angus, after exceptional rainfall threatened to breach the town’s flood defences.

River Street, next to the South River Esk, was fully blocked by a police patrol vehicle as well as signposts advising there is no entry onto the street, as members of the coastguard made door-to-door enquiries to check on residents’ safety. 

Heavy showers also battered parts of England and Wales on Thursday night, causing travel disruption. Amber warnings are in place for northern England, the Midlands and Wales.

The rain arrived in southeast England overnight, spreading to most areas by dawn. The unsettled weather is set to remain today and through to the weekend, with strong winds reaching 80mph.  

Ms Robison said: ‘Protecting the public is our immediate priority and we are co-ordinating a national effort to ensure that people are safe.

‘The red warning has been expanded to cover further parts of Scotland and we expect weather conditions to deteriorate seriously overnight. Our message is clear – if you live in the areas covered by the red warning, please stay at home and do not travel, unless advised to relocate to a rest centre.

‘With weather warnings in place for much of the country, I would urge everyone to be vigilant and to exercise extreme caution. No matter where you live, please make sure you stay up to date with conditions affecting your area.

‘If you need to travel in a yellow warning area then make sure you can travel safely and that roads and services are not impacted.

‘We are working with partners across the country, including emergency services, the voluntary sector and energy companies, to make sure that we mitigate disruption as much as possible.

‘However, we are clear that there will be considerable disruption and we expect to launch a major clean-up operation as we move into the weekend.’ 

It came as the Met Office issued an extremely rare ‘danger to life’ red warning from 6pm on Thursday through to midday on Friday with over a month’s worth of rainfall expected in the worst-affected regions. 

Forecasters had initially warned that the east of Scotland, including Brechin, Forfar and Kirriemuir, could be hit hardest with ‘exceptionally heavy and persistent rain’. It has since been spread wider to include parts of Dundee and western Tayside.

The last red warning anywhere in the UK for rain was in February 2022 for Storm Eunice.

The Met Office has also issued a new amber warning for parts of northern England, the Midlands and Wales as Storm Babet sparks chaos in the UK. Workmen have been pictured putting flood defences up as Britain prepares for a deluge of rain.

The warning is in place from noon on Friday to 6am on Saturday due to persistent heavy rain. Homes and businesses are likely to be flooded and some communities could be cut off by impacted roads.

Between 40 and 60mm of rain is likely, with the potential for between 80 and 120mm on higher ground, the Met Office said. 

It comes as Storm Babet has caused mayhem on Thursday with trains cancelled, roads blocked and Britons warned to stay at home as gale force winds and torrential rain hit the UK.

The second named storm of the season hammered Ireland yesterday as dozens of cars were submerged and washed away, while businesses, supermarkets and hospitals fell victim to the destructive floods. 

But Storm Babet, named after a woman from the Netherlands who said she had been born during a gale, is now starting to wreak havoc in Britain.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency has said they are expecting ‘extensive river and surface water flooding’ as Storm Babet hits.

‘Take action now to protect yourself and your property. Hazards can be hidden, so please don’t walk or drive into flood water. Remember that not only is flood water likely to be dirty, 30 cm of fast flowing water can move an average family sized car, and just 15 cm of fast flowing water could be enough to knock you off your feet.’

Scottish Water warned of the risk of sewer flooding and said staff are on standby. The organisation said sewer flooding reports are expected to increase as drainage systems become overwhelmed by the extreme rainfall.

John Griffen, Scottish Water’s water operations general manager said: ‘We have activated contingency plans including increasing the numbers of staff and contractors on standby to support customers experiencing sewer flooding, and protect our critical infrastructure across water and waste water services.

‘Plans are in place for known sewer flooding hotspots with tankers on-site, and we encourage any customer experiencing sewer flooding to report it as soon as possible…’

Mass train cancellations have been imposed by ScotRail, expected to last from today until Saturday with trains suspended in North and North East Scotland while the South and West will also be hit by delays today.

Services have been suspended between Aberdeen and Elgin; Edinburgh and Aberdeen via Fife; and Perth and Aberdeen via Dundee.

Stagecoach has also warned bus passengers of disruption in eastern Scotland today. It said the X7 bus route from Aberdeen to Perth will be impacted by the closure of Lower Northwater Bridge in Aberdeenshire. Highland Council has announced that all its bus services will be suspended until further notice too.

The Royal Family’s Balmoral castle and estate has been closed to the public today and tomorrow due to the weather in Aberdeenshire. All facilities at Cairngorm Mountain in Aviemore have also been closed today due to the storm.