Ex hurricane Bertha; Tornado causes havoc as it rips through Hull, UK

A mini-tornado tore through Hull yesterday as Britain suffered a battering from the tail-end of Hurricane Bertha.

A woman was hit by flying glass as the twister caused havoc on a road in the east of the East Yorkshire city.

She had been getting into a taxi when an uprooted tree crashed into the vehicle and she was sprayed with broken glass. The unnamed victim was treated for minor injuries.

Stunned homeowner Matthew Waller said: “It was shocking. You could actually feel the air pressure dropping. Then we heard an almighty whoosh and a load of tiles went flying from people’s roofs.”

Bertha, which first hit the Caribbean, brought gales and torrential downpours to the South West in the early hours before roaring across the country and dumping a month’s worth of rain in some areas.

Gusts of up to 64mph were recorded at the Needles on the Isle of Wight and some areas of Wales received more than 40mm of rain.

Fire crews were called out to flooding incidents in Cardiff, Newport and St David’s. A security van was stranded in shoulder-deep flood waters in the Splott area of the Welsh capital as intense downpours hit early in the morning.

In Fleet, Hants, a woman in her 60s was rescued by firefighters after being pinned to the ground by a fallen tree. She suffered minor injuries.

An Asda supermarket was evacuated in Sittingbourne, Kent, after rain poured through the roof. In nearby Maidstone, a ceiling in a branch of ­Morrisons collapsed under the weight of water.

Flash-floods hit West Bridgford in Nottingham, turning streets into rivers and leaving motorists stranded.

In Norfolk, firefighters battled to pump water out of 10 homes, while there were similar scenes in sodden Kent.

Rail passengers at Waterloo in London had to use umbrellas inside the station as the torrential downpours caused a leak in the roof. In all, London Fire Brigade attended 60 flooding incidents between 8am and 3.30pm.

All sailings were scrapped on the Scillonian Ferry between Penzance and Isles of Scilly and there were also cancellations on Brittany Ferries’ catamaran service between Portsmouth and Cherbourg.

Dozens of events had to be cancelled across the UK. A mass ascent of hot air balloons on the final day of the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta was scrapped.

In the South East, 20,000 competitors in the RideLondon-Surrey cycling event saw the course cut from 100 miles to 86. And the final day of the Boardmasters music and surfing festival at Watergate Bay in Cornwall was cancelled.

The centre of the storm passed the UK by 6pm but showers, strong winds and lower temperatures are expected for the rest of the week.

Rachael Vince, a forecaster with MeteoGroup, said the weather outlook for the rest of the month was unsettled.