Britain faces fresh weather chaos on Saturday as the big thaw causes major flooding
BRITAIN faces fresh weather chaos as the big thaw causes major flooding.
With blankets of snow now melting, experts also warned of the risk of black ice forming on roads.
But some determined revellers still braved the cold front.
The new dangers came as business chiefs said the Beast from the East had cost the UK economy £1billion a day.
A dozen flood warnings have been issued, mainly across the South West, with 33 lesser flood alerts covering the rest of the country.
Met Office forecaster Greg Dewhurst said: “It won’t feel quite as cold compared with what we’ve seen previously, but the potential for ice could mean roads are very slippery.”
Yesterday the M62 motorway in Manchester finally reopened after being closed for more than 32 hours, at one point trapping almost 4,000 vehicles.
What we know so far:
- Families told to evacuate their homes as Britain braces for intense flooding
- Charlie Pope, 19, became the 16th victim of the Beast from the East after cops found his body in a Manchester canal
- Thousands of commuters were left stranded at rail stations across the country on Friday night
- Looters targeted a storm-damaged Lidl store in Dublin - even ripping its roof off to get to the safe
- Some rail passengers jumped onto the tracks after their train became stranded in Lewisham on Friday evening
- The military was been pulled in to help clear traffic after hundreds of drivers were stranded overnight on Britain's roads
- In a bizarre phenomenon freezing rain was pictured turning the nation's roads into ice rinks
- Motorists have been evacuated from the Isle of Wight by helicopter after the roads have become too dangerous to use
- Football matches were
- At least 9,000 were left without electricity in the north of the country as power supplies suffer in the chill
- Hundreds of flights in and out of UK and Irish airports were cancelled
A yellow weather warning for snow is in place for much of the day across parts of Scotland, while an ice warning covers all of England and Northern Ireland until 11am.
Forecasters say temperatures could plummet to lows of minus 4C in rural areas overnight.
However, a gradual thaw will continue to take hold for many places on Sunday, especially in southern England where the mercury could reach as high as 9C.
Met Office forecaster Becky Mitchell said: "Through the rest of the afternoon we've got spells of rain across the south, perhaps turning to sleet at times, but we really are losing that risk of snow across much of southern England and Wales through Sunday as temperatures return towards normal for a lot of places.
"There is quite a lot of snow in some places across the south.
"It's going to be some time before all that snow melts away but temperature-wise over the next few days it's definitely going to help things.
"The main point is it's gradually turning milder so we are seeing an end to widespread cold conditions from this weekend onwards."
The five days of snow havoc — which included the chilliest start to March on record — is believed to have cost the country £5billion.
Analysts at the Centre for Economics and Business Research said restaurants and bars have been badly hit as customers remained at home, while building sites and supply routes were paralysed.
A spokesman added: “The effect of this on UK supply chains will accumulate as adverse weather persists.”
Supermarkets were busy restacking shelves after some ran out of key stock.
Shopper Floyd Mortimer, 30, went to Lidl in St Austell, Cornwall, and said: “All the essentials had gone — no bread, milk, vegetables or meat.
“It looked like it had been ransacked.
"There were elderly people and young families wandering around just hoping to find something.”
The youngest victim of the weather is believed to be a girl of seven killed in a car crash in Cornwall while a 75-year-old woman died after slipping under a car in Leeds.
Other fatalities include a man found dead on a pavement in Westgate-on-Sea, Kent.
In West Linton, in the Scottish Borders, a couple aged 70 and 71 were dug out of their house by rescuers after being trapped with their two dogs by 12ft snow drifts.
They called for help on Friday when they had no heating.
They had run out of firewood and their coal shed was buried.
They were freed by two cops and Tweed Valley Mountain Rescue team and are now staying with friends.
One rescuer said: “They were a little surprised by how the situation escalated so quickly.”
Paramedics were attacked in a row over parking while going to a 999 call in Sparkhill, Birmingham.
Tasha Starkey said she was “threatened, verbally abused, and my crewmate was assaulted”.
In Wales an investigation was launched into claims hospitals charged nurses put up overnight in student accommodation.
A post on social media said: “Some Welsh hospitals are charging those nurses who volunteer not to go home the cost of sleeping in on-site student accommodation £20-30 a night.”
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Head of the Royal College of Nursing in Wales, Tina Donnelly, said it was “abhorrent”.
Meanwhile 19 flights from Heathrow were cancelled yesterday, 12 from Gatwick and 14 from Manchester airport.
Glasgow airport said it had experienced the worst snowfall “in its history” and was still dealing with delays.
- FROZEN Brits watched more than a million extra hours of TV while the Beast from the East raged.
Among the most popular movies were Thor: Ragnarok and The Snowman, TalkTalk statistics found.
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