Storm: Chaos in county (From The Oxford Times)

Storm: Chaos in county

8:15am Friday 19th January 2007 in

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SEVERAL people were injured, thousands were left without power and there was chaos on the roads yesterday when high winds wreaked havoc across the county.

The injuries happened when hoardings surrounding Oxford's animal testing laboratory collapsed and gusts of 75mph were recorded at about 1pm.

Winds began to pick up at about 7am yesterday and four schools - Didcot Girls, Harwell Primary School, Chipping Norton School and Steventon Primary School - were all closed because of problems caused by the high winds.

By mid-afternoon Oxfordshire County Council had received more than 450 reports of fallen trees and flooding.

In the centre of Oxford, a section of a 12ft high metal and wood barrier was blown over by a gust of wind at about 1.15pm at Oxford University in South Parks Road.

Police closed off South Parks Road and Longwall Street and directed traffic down Oxford High Street as an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive was launched.

A 28-year-old man suffered cuts and a head injury, a 30-year-old woman who works at the university and a 28-year-old woman suffered broken cheekbones and another member of staff received a dislocated hip.

Animal rights protester Amanda Richards, 32, of SPEAK, was setting up a demo outside the University's animal testing laboratory when she heard the hoardings fall.

She said: "We heard screaming and we ran over the road and lifted the fence up so they could try and climb out.

"Somebody was waving underneath and the girl was screaming 'help me'. She was very distressed. She had a little bit of blood on her face and it had swollen up straight away.

"It wasn't until a bit later that we could see the man and he was lying on the floor and his leg looked very badly hurt."

A spokesman for Oxford University said: "It appears the wind sucked the hoarding out from the biomedical research facility. Why this happened is being investigated from a technical point of view."

The last time wind speeds of this magnitude were recorded in Oxfordshire was the Burns' Day storm of January 25, 1990, but yesterday's gusts were higher than those recorded in the great storm of 1987. Oxford University took an early decision to close Christ Church Meadow for fear of trees falling in the high winds and scores of public parks across the county were also closed as the danger increased.

A total of 30 trees fell in Oxford and four public parks across the city - Hinksey, Berry Knowle, Florence and Headington Hill - were closed as a precautionary measure.

Fire crews were kept busy throughout the day moving trees and other debris from the roads, dealing with collisions and helping to secure damaged buildings and 21 reports of flooding across the county.

Just before 5pm firefighters had to shore up the Westgate shopping centre roof in Oxford after cladding began to fall from the building.

Delice Hunt, 57, from Busby Close, Stonesfield, had a narrow escape when a thick branch from a tree fell on to the window of her car in Stonesfield.

Mrs Hunt, a support worker who was driving at 10mph at the time, said: "If I had have been going faster it would have gone through the glass. It would have hit me and speared me."

Builder David Bartlett, from Didcot, was working at a house when winds ripped a tree down and it crashed on his van.

Storm brings travel frustration. Click here for full story.