Storm Isha brings misery and travel chaos to Britain, Ireland

Jan. 22 (UPI) -- Britain and Ireland were battered overnight by storm Isha which brought 99 mph winds that brought down trees, knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of homes and disrupted road, rail, air and sea travel.

About 11,000 homes on the mainland were without power Monday morning, 45,000 in Northern Ireland and 235,000 in the Irish Republic, bridges and many roads were shut, no trains were running anywhere in Scotland, hundreds of flights were canceled or diverted to European airports and ferry services were suspended.

One person died after losing control of his car on a flooded road in County Mayo in Ireland and a flight from Egypt to Glasgow declared an emergency as it made its approach to the city's airport forcing air traffic controllers to divert the Boeing 737 Max 8 south to Manchester, 200 miles away.

At least 153 flood warnings were in place and most areas remain under a severe weather alert for strong wind hampering the cleanup and restoring power -- with many homes expected to remain without electricity for another 24 hours -- although conditions are expected to ease throughout the day.

"From first light this morning, our teams have been carrying out line patrols to assess the full extent of any damage to our network," said Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks spokesman Andy Smith.

"This work will continue through the day, enabling us to target our repairs in the right location and provide our customers with estimated restoration times. The latest information will be displayed on our Power Track app."

The power situation was exacerbated after the Sellafield nuclear power plant on the northwest coast suspended operations due to the weather.

Storm Isha is the second major North Atlantic storm after Henk to hit the countries so far this year and the ninth since September although meteorologists at Britain's Met Office insist there is little evidence the increasing frequency and intensity of winter storms is being fueled by climate change heating up the ocean.

However, they say warming water in the North Atlantic could potentially increase the risk of more storms during the fall season.