A £250,000 wind turbine was blown down by gale-force winds this weekend, leaving it a ‘mangled, blackened wreck with melted blades’.

The controversial 115-foot tower at East Ash Farm in Devon, near Holsworthy, toppled over after gale force gusts of 50mph made its blades spin out of control.

The massive structure – which is as tall as a ten-storey building – then caught fire and collapsed in the stormy weather on Sunday evening.

It was only built in 2010 – but the farm’s owners have recently been granted permission to erect a second turbine.

The terrified motorist’s Volkswagen Polo crashed through the tarmac in a rainy Manchester after the ground crumbled after overnight flooding. 

Just 24 hours earlier, the body of a fisherman was found by rescuers searching for a boat that had gone missing off Torquay.

Rescue helicopter, RNLI lifeboats, coastguard rescue teams and two Royal Navy vessels were involved in the search in gale-force winds.

Jeremy Linn from Brixham Coastguard said: ‘He had been fishing for the afternoon and was coming home with a catch on board, which means he obviously had quite a lot of weight in the boat.

‘It was not good weather – it was very windy, we’d had lots of rain and the sea state was rough – so it’s a strong possibility that the boat was swamped in some way and sank.’

Torbay lifeboat Coxswain Mark Criddle said: ‘It’s very sad that two young men have lost their lives in this way.’

A homeowner had a lucky escape when a powerful gust of wind blew a skylight window out of her roof and sent it crashing down on her car.

The heavy 3ft x 2ft frame and glass flew over the house and landed on owner Katie Gregory’s car three floors below.

via UK weather: Heavy floods wreak havoc and gale force winds sends 115ft turbine to the ground | Mail Online.

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