London, January 06: Snowstorms were sweeping across the country last night as Britain faced the prospect of a freeze lasting for weeks.
Arctic weather brought the North to a virtual standstill under eight inches of snow yesterday and 16 inches was forecast for parts of the South overnight.
Massive disruption hit roads, railways and airports, more than 1,000 schools closed and there were fears that supplies of gas and grit were running out.
But millions of people struggled to work and back again and Gordon Brown insisted: ‘We can cope’. The Met Office had issued an emergency ‘extreme weather warning’ as a weather front straight from the Arctic swept across the country, taking temperatures as low as -14c.
Millions were caught up in chaos across the north of England and Scotland, which forecasters said would spread to the South today in what is already the longest cold spell since 1981. They warned that the freeze could go on for at least another 15 days, making it the worst for a century.
Police warned people to stay at home unless their journey was vital as they prepared for countrywide disruption.
Sale
As the blizzards spread:
● Four people died in accidents on icy roads;
● A six-year-old boy was fighting for his life after falling through the ice on a garden pond;
● Councils warned they were rapidly running out of grit and some had little more than a day’s supply;
● There was panic buying of salt, shovels, thermal underwear – and sledges;
● A driver was treated for shock after his car skidded on to a level crossing near Selby, North Yorkshire, and was hit by a train seconds after he scrambled clear.
With customers using gas at near-record levels, the National Grid issued a red alert that demand was outstripping supply. But extra supplies pumped in from Belgium and Norway eased the situation.
Gordon Brown denied the country was facing a gas supply crisis, insisting: ‘I think Britain can deal with these problems. There are always difficulties when we have a long spell of bad weather. But we can cope.’
traffic
Millions of motorists were stuck on snow-bound roads as Manchester, Liverpool and parts of Yorkshire ground to a halt. Dual carriageways were reduced to single lanes as snowploughs struggled to cope and the RAC said it was dealing with 1,400 breakdowns every hour
Manchester roads were so badly hit that ambulance bosses ordered paramedics to be sent only to life-threatening cases. Buses stopped running in Sheffield and other parts of South Yorkshire.
The sheer scale of the disruption was badly hitting councils’ abilities to keep roads open last night with some reduced to ‘borrowing’ salt and grit from their neighbours.
The mine which supplies road salt for most of the UK was working overtime, but there were fears that lorries delivering it would be caught up in the road chaos.
All airports across the North and most of those in Scotland were closed for most of the day, leaving tens of thousands of passengers unable to fly. Last night Southampton airport also closed as the snow swept in.
Trains were badly hit, with delays on both East and West Coast main lines and services across the Pennines and to Wales, the South-West and East Anglia.
There were also concerns about the impact of the freeze on the economy. The Trades Union Congress urged bosses to let their staff work from home wherever possible rather than struggle into work in dangerous conditions.
But some firms said they feared staff would take advantage of the chaos to stay at home without even trying to reach work.
Around 20 per cent of workers took time off after the massive snowfall in February last year.
The icy conditions took a growing human toll. Police warned dog walkers to take care after a woman who was last seen exercising her pet on Sunday was found dead in a frozen village pond in Framptonon-Severn, Gloucestershire.
In Oxford, six-year-old Thomas Hudson was fighting for his life in hospital after falling through ice on a garden pond in Crookham Common, Berkshire.
He is thought to have been trapped in the water for as long as half an hour. In Ripon, North Yorkshire, fears grew for 36-year- old Ian Simpkin, who left home on foot on Sunday morning.
The UK is not the only country being hit by low temperatures. Beijing is in the grip of its coldest spell for 20 years, down to -18c (0f), and snow has disrupted even France’s high-speed trains.
Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand spent a night in hospital after his scooter skidded on black ice.
One group of Englishmen abroad would welcome a little snow. England’s cricket team are heading for a heavy defeat under cloudless Cape Town skies in the Third Test against South Africa.
–Agencies–