Freeze may last three more months
BRITAIN ground to an icy halt yesterday as heavy snow paralysed most of the country amid warnings that the big freeze could last until March.
Hospitals cancelled operations, the Army was drafted in to rescue motorists and there were calls for emergency action to ease the gritting crisis as blizzards wrought havoc, dumping 18 inches of snow in some areas.
Forecasters said there would be no let up in the extreme cold weather which has brought the heaviest snowfalls in 30 years.
Jonathan Powell, of Positive Weather Solutions, warned that sub-zero temperatures would continue for some time, making this winter one of the coldest in 100 years.
He said: “Freezing temperatures could well stay with us until late February or even early March.”
The Met Office said it would get colder with more snow forecast.
A spokesman said: “Easterly winds will bring very cold air from Russia as the week goes on. There will be widespread snow again on Saturday night and Sunday.
“Temperatures will get even lower and could get down to -8C (18F) in the South.”
More than three million people stayed at home yesterday as roads, railways and airports were hit.
Hundreds of thousands of children missed classes as more than 8,000 schools closed. Many will remain closed today.
Some rail passengers in Sussex endured a six-hour journey to London – normally it would take about 60 minutes.
Sections of a number of major roads were closed, including the A628 in Derbyshire, the A616 in South Yorkshire, the M1 in South Yorkshire, the A66 in Cumbria, the A27 in Hampshire, the A3 in Surrey and the M40 in Oxfordshire.
The runway at Gatwick closed and more than 80 flights were cancelled. The airport only reopened late in the evening. Manchester and Liverpool airports closed temporarily. And Heathrow, Birmingham, Luton, Southampton, Glasgow and Leeds Bradford International were open but subject to delays and some flight cancellations.
Up to 5,000 homes in Sussex were without electricity after heavy snow brought down power lines to several villages.
The chaos is estimated to have cost businesses £690million. And the cost to Britain’s economic output could reach £14.5billion over the next three weeks.
The heavy snowfalls hit Scotland and the north of England first before moving south to the home counties and London, where it was set to continue falling overnight.
Some parts of the country are short of grit to keep roads open. There were calls for action to ease the crisis by lifting restrictions that limit lorry movements from the salt mine in Winsford, Cheshire, the source of much of Britain’s grit.
Up to 1,000 motorists had to be rescued by the Army after being trapped in their cars overnight on the A3M in Hampshire.
Soldiers used trucks and Land Rovers to get to drivers caught in a 10-mile jam for 12 hours. But some of the motorists claimed they received no help at all and that “no one knew what was going on”. In Gloucestershire, a group of elderly people were rescued after being snowed in at the All Saints Day Centre in Stroud for more than 24 hours.
In Nottinghamshire, an eight-year-old boy had to be airlifted to hospital for a kidney transplant because roads were impassable.
Mountain rescue teams and a police helicopter were called in to search for Matthew Duffield, 36, who went missing from Burnley General Hospital. The search continued overnight.
An elderly man died after his car went out of control on an icy road in Titchfield, Hampshire. In north Wales, tributes were paid to a retained firefighter who died after slipping in snow while walking home. Gareth Wyn Rees, 50, was returning from Harlech fire station on Tuesday when the accident happened.
In Knighton, Powys, mid Wales, a police helicopter delivered food and medical supplies to a family who have been stranded for more than two weeks.
In Preston, Lancashire, a 10-year-old girl had a miraculous escape after a car skidded on ice and flew over her head.
Emilie Pease was playing in the snow on her drive when the Vauxhall Vectra collided with a wall, flipped into the air and landed next to her.
In York, a care worker had to be rescued after she was buried alive in deep snow. Sarah Archdale, 25, had set off by bike to make her house calls visiting the elderly at 6.30am yesterday when she crashed into a pile of snow by the roadside and hit her head, knocking her unconscious.
Her flashing rear bike light was spotted by two passers-by who dragged her out after 20 minutes.
She said later: “I feel very lucky my flashing light was still on.
“Twenty minutes doesn’t sound very long but I’m not sure how much longer I would have lasted unconscious in snow in those temperatures.”
But for some the snow was ideal – like Shane Wilkinson of Wilton, Wiltshire, who took the chance to exercise his Siberian huskies.
