Snow and ice cause traffic chaos in Britain and Switzerland

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Yahoo! Asia - News World Friday, December 29 9:57 PM SGT

Snow and ice cause traffic chaos in Britain and Switzerland LONDON, Dec 29 (AFP) - Heavy snowfalls and ice blocked roads and made driving dangerous on Friday in Britain and southern Switzerland as the death toll due to the extreme cold rose again in Russia.

Temperatures in central England fell to as low as minus 13 degrees Celsius (nine degrees Fahrenheit) overnight as heavy snow blanketed Scotland, north-east and south-west England.

Trucks had been out in force overnight spreading grit on the major roads, but many smaller routes in rural areas were closed by snow drifts.

In the Swiss canton of Ticino, several roads and the local airport were blocked by snow on Friday.

The region's main A2 motorway was covered with snow and blocked by vehicles in some parts. Chains were needed on cars travelling between the towns of Bellinzone and Coire.

Two Crossair planes were grounded by falls at the Lugano-Agno airport while a third flight was diverted to Malpensa airport in Milan.

The Ticino weather office said conditions were expected to improve late on Friday afternoon.

More snow and icy weather has been forecast in Britain for the weekend but temperatures were expected to go up slightly early next week, raising the prospect of flooding as the snow melts.

Conditions improved enough to allow airports in the Scottish cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh and in Liverpool in northwest England to reopen after they were forced to suspend flights on Thursday.

However police closed parts of the M40 motorway north of London and the M5 in central England because of accidents caused by the hazardous conditions.

One carriageway of the A1, Britain's main north-south trunk road, was also closed because of an accident involving three vehicles at Gateshead, in the north-east of England, police said.

Drivers were warned to stay at home unless their journey was absolutely necessary.

In Cumbria in the far north-west corner of England, two small harbours, at Whitehaven and Workington, were iced over, preventing smaller vessels from leaving port.

No fatalities from the cold snap in Britain have been reported, but a 93-year-old woman from County Donegal in the Irish Republic was being buried on Friday after succumbing to hypothermia.

Police in the French town of Rouen found the body of a 62-year-old homeless man on Friday who had also died from the cold.

In the Russian capital, Moscow, three people have died over the past 24 hours from hypothermia and another 30 required hospital treatment, RIA-Novosti cited the emergencies ministry as saying on Friday.

The latest fatalities brought the death toll this winter to 78.

Dozens of people, most of them homeless, die from cold weather in Moscow each winter primarily because there are few emergency shelters.

Flooding was causing most problems in the Yugoslav republic of Montenegro.

Almost 20 inches (50 centimeters) of rain has fallen over the last two days sparking the worst flooding in Montenegro since 1986.

About 40 families were evacuated from the town of Cetinje, where a state of "natural disaster" had been declared.

http://asia.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/world/article.html?s=asia/headlines/001229/world/afp/Snow_and_ice_cause_traffic_chaos_in_Britain_and_Switzerland.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), December 29, 2000


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