Record Rainfall Helps Extinguish Bushfires in Australia
ASHER: At least one person has died in the U.K. because of storm Ciara. Police say a 58-year-old man was killed when street trees -- excuse me, fell on his car during the height of the storm on Sunday. The storm is now on its way to Russia, leaving behind the threat of flooding across the U.K. ITN's Neil Connery has more.</s>NEIL CONNERY, ITV NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Stone Ciara's arrival lived up to the forecasters warnings. In Yorkshire, the rising waters left residents in a desperate race to protect their homes.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So worried what we're doing, trying to protect as best we can. As you can -- you can see, it's fairly horrendous.</s>CONNERY: Sirens sounded to alert those living near the river banks of the impending floods.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It actually came over the wall. Hate to think what the situation is going to be like -- yes, quite -- I'm stress.</s>CONNERY: In between the bands of severe weather, the vast volume of water spilled out wherever it could. Fire and rescue crews did what they could in the face of the powerful storm.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can sum it in one word, grim. And that's through the hall of the valley.</s>CONNERY: Ciara's impact on transport was felt far and wide. At Heathrow, pilots contended with extreme winds. Not every attempt to land first time proved successful.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Missed approach. Didn't land there. He didn't land there.</s>CONNERY: On the railway, some lines were blocked by debris like this trampoline, with speed restrictions in place, it was a challenging day for travelers.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's why we are limited to 52 miles an hour today because of the storm.</s>CONNERY: In Hastings, this life boat crew battled severe gales as they went to rescue a surfer. Thankfully despite the conditions, the crew and the surfer all returned safely. In Hoy, on the Scottish borders, this swollen river spelled disaster for this cafe. In North Wales, flooding brought misery for motorists and residents. Business owners said they'd never seen anything like it.</s>CRAIG DANIELS, BUSINESS OWNER: Within an hour, it was 4-1/2 foot deep, literally couldn't get to the back room because the kitchen had come off the wall. The fridge freezer had fallen down over the door.</s>CONNERY: The forecasters had predicted that storm Ciara would pack a punch, and for much of the country that's been borne out. Here in West Yorkshire, the cost and the impact of the floods has been devastating.</s>RACHEL HAYES, RESIDENT, WEST YORKSHIRE: We're safe so far. And all ornaments plants, pets are all upstairs.</s>CONNERY: Tonight, Rachel Hayes is one of those here counting the cost after her home was flooded.</s>HAYES: This is terrible. This is going to take months to sort out and this is going to affect a lot of people on this road.</s>CONNERY: In the deserted streets nearby, storm Ciara's worst may have moved on, but her impact is just sinking in.</s>ASHER: CNN's Chad Myers joins us live now. So Chad, just walk us through where exactly Ciara is on its way to now and what can residents expect especially as it heads towards Russia?</s>CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. I mean, the center is now broken up into a couple of pieces. So it isn't what it was just a day ago. So I mean, we had wind gusts of 200 kilometers per hour. Now, I would suspect we're somewhere in the ballpark of, I would say 90 kilometers. Right now still a good wind gust. That will still knock down trees and power lines, 175 reports of wind damage, many reports of flooding. The storm is getting closer to the Ural Mountains at this hour and we'll get the snow up to the north of there and the rain to the south. It is going to be a cold but still windy storm for the next couple days. Everywhere that you see that dark red, you look up on the map that's 80 KPH right now. So, 80 KPH moves to the east and then moves away. This was a big storm for this time of year. And we get them this time of year. I understand that but this was a major storm nearly hurricane or even category to gust at times.</s>ASHER: And also Chad, I want to just talk about another weather story we're following because there's been record rainfall in Sydney, that is causing widespread flooding. We know that people have evacuated, several towns in New South Wales, we know that dozens of schools are closed. But interestingly, this is, you know, sort of welcome news for firefighters there.</s>MYERS: You know, drought, heat, and now flood. I just don't even know what's next. Yes, at least we did get some rain for the firefighters. But a lot of this water is just running off not helping drought and creating flash floods here. We still have 65 fires going, the rain is certainly going to help, Zain. We're going to have a couple of days of rainfall if it would just slow down and rain nicely, but it's not playing nicely. It's all coming down at once 100 kilometers in, you know, eight or nine hours and that's just too fast for anybody there as the water is just going to run off. We are going to get here along the coast there of New South Wales, probably somewhere in the ballpark of 150 more millimeters of rain in the next 48 hours.</s>ASHER: I will keep an eye on that, Chad Myers live for us there. Thank you. British Airways has a new record after getting a bit of some help from storm Ciara. One of its Boeing 747 aircraft flew from New York to London in just four hours and 56 minutes. That is now the fastest ever, fastest ever subsonic flight between the two cities. The overnight flight took off Saturday and landed in London's Heathrow two hours ahead of schedule with a boost from the storm as it sped towards the U.K. All right, it's been called a revolution. We'll take a look at the big political shake up happening in Ireland. And what the nationalist Sinn Fein parties upset means for the country. Plus, some new legal challenges are on its way in the U.K. after a man convicted of terror-related charges was released early and then went on a stabbing spree. That's next.