300 rescued from mountain road blizzards

Heavy snow and winds caused overnight chaos in parts of the North with up to 300 people rescued from a mountain road after conditions overwhelmed vehicles.

The blizzard cut electricity to around 50,000 homes, while snowdrifts and fallen trees closed a large number of roads.

The police, coastguard, mountain rescue and Department of Environment launched a joint rescue operation after motorists became stranded when 3ft-high snowdrifts swept across the mountainous Glenshane Pass, a main route between Belfast and Derry.

Two evacuation centres were set up in Maghera and Dungiven in Co Derry to house the stranded, including schoolchildren whose bus had to be abandoned.

There were no reports of injuries, but a power cut to one of the rescue centres forced the authorities to move people to a leisure centre in nearby Limavady.

Police Chief Inspector Steve Cargin, who coordinated the rescue plan, said: “Treacherous blizzard conditions – I have certainly never experienced conditions like it.

“Really frightening conditions, not only for my officers and our support people, but for those people who were stranded in cars for such a long period of time, especially a busload of schoolchildren.

“Conditions – really strong gale-force winds, blizzards, snowdrifts of up to four feet. One of my officers said they saw this bump in the road and then realised it was actually a car. It was completely covered in snow.

“The conditions were just really unbelievable conditions.”

Flights were disrupted as the worst of the storm raged overnight, but as weather conditions improved this morning, officials reported that blocked roads were being cleared and Northern Ireland Electricity (NIE) said work was under way to restore power.

NIE’s Sara McClintock said: “Conditions in the field are extremely bad.

“The wind and snow caused havoc last night, bringing down electricity poles and lines, and Met Office warnings remain in place.

“We face a mammoth task in trying to fix over 600 individual faults with these prevailing conditions.”

She said ice on power lines, combined with strong winds, brought down cables. Poor conditions made it impossible for technicians to climb power-line poles, but at first light this morning the repair operation was renewed.

More than 450 engineers, linesmen, tree cutters, call agents and administration staff are supporting efforts to restore electricity supplies, NIE said.

The areas worst affected by power cuts were in Co Derry and in the Omagh, Dungannon, Coleraine and Ballymena areas.

After around 120 vehicles, with approximately 300 passengers, were trapped on the Glenshane Pass last night, officials said conditions were treacherous.

Drivers found themselves trapped when both ends of the mountain pass became blocked with snow. They were later transported to the evactuation centres, where they were provided with food and shelter.

Roads Service manager Colin Brown said: “The weather last night across Northern Ireland was unprecedented in my experience.

“Heavy snow, blizzard conditions, heavy rain and winds, a whole combination of problems on the roads.

“Nonetheless, in Roads Service we have been out all night and continue to do so. The Glenshane Pass is probably the worst-affected route within Northern Ireland.

“Abandoned vehicles did hamper our operations last night, and many of the passengers and drivers (were) displaced to other centres.”

He said the route was passable with care today, but urged drivers to avoid the Glenshane Pass if possible until it is cleared.

He said: “I would like to think in a few hours we would have the road back to more normal operating conditions.

“It’s a treacherous time, it’s difficult, but we’re doing our level best to bring us back to normality.”

With eastern areas hit by heavy rain, flooding and high winds encouraged the collapse of trees on to a number of roads.

Mr Brown told BBC Radio Ulster that snow levels were worst on high ground, but there was also snow across wide areas of counties Tyrone, Armagh and Derry, including drifts of up to four or five feet.

Mr Cargin told the BBC that he believed people were surprised by the ferocity of the weather last night.

Continued strong winds and snow were forecast today, but there were hopes that conditions would ease later.