UK Weather Storm Katie Causes Chaos For Southern England

One man feared dead after 105mph winds and torrential rain batter the south coast.

Police are searching for a man whose kayak is believed to have capsized in the waters of the river Wey, near Guildford, in Surrey, during the aftermath of Storm Katie.

Surrey Police said the unidentified man had overturned at about midday on Easter Monday, when the river was flooded.

“We have a large number of officers out looking for this man alongside a number of fire crews,” said Chief Inspector Dave Mason. “The man was spotted in the water by several members of the public and was clearly in difficulty due to the extremely strong current. We are doing everything we can to try and find him.”

The man’s disappearance came after Storm Katie brought gusts of up to 105mph to parts of southern England over the weekend.

Flights and trains were heavily disrupted, with Heathrow having to cancel more than 90 flights and divert 20 others to different airports.

One passenger on board a flight from Budapest to Gatwick claimed his plane was “dropping suddenly and swinging left to right” before the pilot “suddenly aborted the landing”

“People then began being ill and sick,” he added. “We eventually landed complete with a full round of applause and people crying at Birmingham airport.”

In London, the fire service said it had dealt with more than 110 incidents due to high winds. Some locals in Greenwich were forced to leave their homes after a crane became loose and collapsed.

 

The strongest winds were felt on the Isle of Wight, where gusts of 106mph were recorded. Storm Katie left the British mainland late on Monday morning, according to the BBC, and passed over the southern North Sea yesterday evening.

 

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