UK News 28-10-2002 Eight Dead As Freak Storms Flatten Britain who: Association of British Insurers (ABI) what: Says freak storm caused £50million damage when: Yesterday snippet: "Eight people, including three children, died as howling winds battered the country yesterday," reports The Daily Record. "Hundreds more were injured as storms gusting up to 100mph swept across much of Britain." The children and four adults were killed by falling trees, says The Independent, "while an angler was swept to his death near Aberdeen. At least a further 15 people died in Europe as winds of up to 100mph pounded Switzerland, France, Belgium and the Netherlands." A three-year-old boy was crushed to death in his pushchair by an 80ft rotting ash tree while his mother took him on a woodland walk, explains The Mirror. "A 10-year-old boy was hit by a tree on the outskirts of Norwich. He also died from head injuries. A girl of 14 was killed and her mother and 20-year-old sister were seriously hurt when a tree crushed their car at Turnhill, Shropshire." 55 year-old Eric White from Whittington, near Downham Market, Norfolk, was hit by a falling tree in his garden. A male motorist died on the A40 near Brecon and a 22-year-old female motorist was killed by a falling branch in Oxford. "The highest windspeed recorded was 96mph at Swansea in south Wales in what the Meteorological Office described as a severe autumn storm," says The Telegraph. The Association of British Insurers has estimated the damage to be around £50million, says The Guardian, markedly less than the October 1987 gales which cost insurers £1billion or the January 1990 gales which cost them around £2billion. [... more]

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