Wild weather will continue to batter Lancashire

These photos capture the damage and devastation caused by storms as the wild weather looks set to continue tormenting Lancashire.
IN WAVES: Flooding in Blackpool by the seaIN WAVES: Flooding in Blackpool by the sea
IN WAVES: Flooding in Blackpool by the sea

From floods and road closures to broken buildings and car crashes, Storm Clodagh wreaked havoc across the county this week helping make November the wettest in Lancashire’s history.

And the chaos is set to continue according to amateur forecaster Stuart Markham, from Chorley, who is predicting more wind and rain - meaning the problems could get worse.

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Severe weather warnings were issued by the Met Office over the weekend through to late tonight with a spokesman saying there’s no signs of the wind and rain stopping.

And Mark agrees saying: “Looking at the weather patterns it looks like it’s going to keep raining and being very windy until at least the middle of December. After that it’s very difficult to be accurate but it looks like it might go very cold for Christmas.”

The 38-year-old runs his own website, chorleyweather.com, as well as keeping his followers updated on Facebook and Twitter.

Chipping’s Muriel Lord, who has been collecting rainfall data for the Met Office since 1968, says the county keeps getting wetter and wetter with this year’s November rainfall the most ever recorded.

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She said: “The average is about 152mm and this month there’s been 310mm. The rainfall seems to be slowly increasing year-on-year and it looks like it’s only going to get wetter.”

WATER WAYS: The River Ribble at Salmesbury burst its banksWATER WAYS: The River Ribble at Salmesbury burst its banks
WATER WAYS: The River Ribble at Salmesbury burst its banks

Responding to flooding across Lancashire the Environment Agency’s Marina Powell-Currie, Flood Resilience Team Leader for Lancashire, said: “Flooding can have a devastating effect on people’s lives, with as many as one in six properties at risk of flooding, so it’s essential that people understand the risks that flooding poses to property and personal safety, and that they find out what they can do to keep themselves warned and informed against any future flood risk.”

Engineers from Electricity North West were also battling the elements to 
restore power to hundreds of homes as severe winds in 
the region caused a number of faults.

Electricity North West systems manager Chris Fox said: “We are doing everything we can to get power supplies restored to our customers as quickly as possible. We have restored a number of customers by remote control technology, this allows our engineers to then concentrate on repairing the damage and restoring power to the remaining customers.”

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Preston had 1,800 homes without electricity and although it has been restored in 1,400 of them, 400 houses remain without electricity. Electricity North West has now cancelled a number of planned network maintenance jobs to focus on repairing damage caused by the storm.

Preston bus station after wind damagePreston bus station after wind damage
Preston bus station after wind damage

There’s also 15cm of snow expected to fall across high ground in parts of the North West this month and Lancashire Police are advising 
motorists to allow extra time for their journeys, reduce their speed and leave greater distances between themselves and the vehicle in front. Home and business 
owners are also being warned to look after their properties with no definite timescale on when the strong gales and torrential rain will stop.