Storms kill 13 Britons

Press, 24 October 1989, Page 9

Storms kill 13 Britons

NZPA-AP London Two days and nights of storms in Britain left 13 people dead on the roads and at sea, all in southern England, the police and coast guards said yesterIn the worst incident, an empty bus skidding on a wet road at Honiton, Devon, hit a railroad bridge and landed upside down on a car, killing the bus driver and the car’s four occupants, who were going home from a wedding. Five other people died in road accidents caused by vehicles skidding or crashing into trees brought down by the winds. Two men died in separate yacht capsizings off the south coast and a youth was swept away while fishing off rocks near Perranporth, in Cornwall. Thousands of homes in southern England were left without power yesterday when power lines were brought down. Meteorologists said the bad weather, which began on Saturday, was the worst since a hurricane swept southern England in October 1987, killing 17 people and felling an estimated 15 million trees.