London — Britain and Ireland braced Sunday for powerful wind and rain from Storm Isha that were expected to batter a wide swath of the island nations and disrupt travel.
The Met Office issued an unusual blanket wind warning for all the U.K., saying gusts could reach 90 miles per hour (145 kilometers per hour) in places and threaten lives.
“There’s the potential for danger-to-life and damaging winds potentially leading to some power cuts in places, some large waves around coastal regions could bring some debris onto roads and trees could come down,” meteorologist Tom Morgan said.
Parts of the U.K. have been hammered since fall by a series of gusty and wet storms that have toppled trees, knocked out power and led to flooding along river valleys. Isha is the ninth named storm to hit the U.K. since September.
Some operators of rail lines, which previously were affected by flooding, trees fallen on tracks and landslides, planned to halt services or warned riders of delays and, in some instances, urged them to rebook.
In the west of Ireland, counties Donegal, Galway and Mayo were warned of extremely strong and possibly destructive gusts from Sunday afternoon into the morning. People were told to stay away from the coast for their own safety.
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