Merseyside Big Freeze, Liverpool Echo

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★★★★ MERSEYSLIDE Your 8-page Big Freeze picture special To buy these pictures go to www.merseyshop.com/buyaphoto or call 0845 300 3021. 25% off prints – January sale now on

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Your 8-page Big Freeze picture special from the Liverpool Echo.

Transcript of Merseyside Big Freeze, Liverpool Echo

Page 1: Merseyside Big Freeze, Liverpool Echo

★★★★

MERSEYSLIDEYour 8-page Big Freeze picture special

To buy these pictures go to www.merseyshop.com/buyaphotoor call 0845 300 3021. 25% off prints – January sale now on

Page 2: Merseyside Big Freeze, Liverpool Echo

NEWS Tuesday, January 12, 20102 ★★★★

Theweekwenearlyslitheredtoastop

To buy these pictures go to www.merseyshop.com/buyaphotoor call 0845 300 3021. 25% off prints January sale now on

IT WAS a week when for a short whileit looked as if Liverpool andMerseyside were going to freezesolid.

After a frosty Monday, the snowscame overnight and turned Tuesdaymorning into the proverbial winterwonderland.

The warning signs were there to beseen when many of the city’s schoolsdecided to close for the day as teachersstruggled to get into work and headsdecided that slippery yards covered insnow were too much of a healthhazard.

But the agony really started later inthe day as the first flurries oflunchtime snow turned in to afull-scale blizzard.

Shops and offices in the city centrestarted to send their staff home early,but by then it was too late.

Buses were slipping and slidingeverywhere before they wereeventually withdrawn. Councilgritting teams were just overwhelmedby the sudden ferocity of the weather,and by late afternoon, the city centrestreets were one giant car park.

Suddenly Merseyrail, thecommuter network we had loved tohate, became the hero of the hour,hardly missing a beat as it ferriedpeople in and out of the city amidst thechaos.

And chaos it was. Drivers weretaking literally hours just to get as faras the suburbs of Liverpool. As carsbacked up in Birkenhead, police had toclose the Kingsway tunnel for a while,triggering yet more chaos back inLiverpool as cars ground to a halt.

Everywhere it seemed as if the citywas shutting down. Non-emergencyappointments were cancelled athospitals across the region, whileaccident and emergency units bracedthemselves for a rush as pedestrianswent crashing to the ground on theice.

Court hearings were thrown intodisarray. Judge David Fletcher wasstranded in Stoke on Trent, whichbrought the Liverpool CommunityJustice Centre in Vauxhall to a halt,while prisoners in the custody suiteattached to the magistrates’ court inHuyton had to be moved on when theircells became too cold.

But they didn’t get very far – plansto move cases to the courts at nearby StHelens had to be abandoned when theytoo fell victim to the snow.

Cain’s Brewery and the big carplants of Jaguar Land Rover andVauxhall had to switch their energy tooil to help conserve gas, while acrossthe North West companies startedreckoning up the cost. First estimateswere that it could be £25m, possiblyeven doubling if it becomes aprolonged freeze.

As day two dawned of the big freeze,travellers started to compare their

stories. Two and a half hours toMossley Hill? Nothing compared to theseven hours it took one Echojournalist to drive in from Runcorn, orthe four hours that others took to gethome to Wirral.

Heroes began to emerge. Top of thelist was Merseyrail, where staffgrafted beyond the call of duty to keepthe trains running.

Then came the individual acts, suchas Kevin Hollis, who delivered his ownbaby daughter in the middle of theM53, guided by ambulance staff on hismobile phone.

Council staff in St Helens turned to4x4 vehicles to help the meals on wheelservice get through, while offenderson community service orders weredrafted in to help clear snow in Seftonand Knowsley.

By Friday the immediate crisis waswinding down, but the inquests wereonly just starting.

Where were the gritters? Didschools really have to shut down forthe rest of the week? The debate lookslike being fast and furious in the daysto come.

byBILL LEECE PEAKS: Snow covers thetop of the arch at theentrance to Liverpool'sChinatown Picture:JAMES MALONEY/JM050110WEATHER-12

BLIZZARD: Shoppersin Liverpool city centrebrave the storm

Picture: GARETHJONES/GRJ050110WEATHER-13

CHILLY:TheLiverbirdsin the bigfreezePicture:GARETHJONES/GRJ070110

WEATHER-2

Page 3: Merseyside Big Freeze, Liverpool Echo

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 NEWS 3★★★★

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RISKY: A shopper takes cover in Woolton Village during a blizzardPicture: ANDREW TEEBAY/at050110bsnow-5

CAREFUL: Traffic crawlspast the Anglican Cathedral

Picture: GAVIN TRAFFORD/GAV050110AWEATHER-4

AT HOME: A cold snap forGo Penguins at The Strand

Picture: COLIN LANE/CL241209POSTCARDPENGUIN-1

Page 4: Merseyside Big Freeze, Liverpool Echo

NEWS Tuesday, January 12, 20104 ★★★★

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ARCTIC MERSEYSIDE:Ince Blundell woods nearFormby Picture: COLINLANE/ CL241209POSTCARD-1

ICY: A blizzard hits thePier Head canal link

Picture: COLINLANE/CL050110SNOWPIERHEAD-3

COOL RUNNING: Families enjoy the snow on Otterspool PromPicture: GAVIN TRAFFORD/GAV060110AWEATHER-3

WHITE-OUT: Snow-coveredWoolton Road

Picture: ANDREWTEEBAY/at050110bsnow-2

Page 5: Merseyside Big Freeze, Liverpool Echo

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 NEWS 5★★★★

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EASY: Sophie Whitgreave(left) gets a tow from hertwo-year-old pet Lemi inCroxteth Hall country park

Picture: ANDREW TEEBAY/at060110eweather-5

NOT SO TROPICAL: ThePalm House in Sefton Park(right) Picture: COLINLANE/CL050110SNOW-7

FROZEN IN TIME: The Arts Centre clocktower in Lord Street, Southport

Picture: GARETH JONES/GRJ050110WEATHER-24

Page 6: Merseyside Big Freeze, Liverpool Echo

NEWS Tuesday, January 12, 20106 ★★★★

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Luckyoneswhohadasnowplayground

EVERY cloud has a silver lining,and the one that brought chaos toMerseyside last week was noexception.

It was a great time to be ayoungster as schools shut downacross the city and stayed shut inmany cases for the rest of theweek.

Maybe it wasn’t so brilliant forthe grown-ups who had to stay athome to keep an eye on them, but foranyone else Liverpool andMerseyside had suddenly becomeone big snowy playground.

Plastic toboggans were snappedup from the toy shops, and once theyhad run out, it was time toimprovise, with makeshift sledgesknocked up from scrap timber oreven just a supermarket plastic bagto keep clothes dry as revellers shotdown the slippery slopes.

Suddenly parks with steep slopeswere all the rage, particularlyEverton Park in the north end ofLiverpool and Camp Hill inWoolton, always a magnet themoment snow falls and sticks to theground.

Elsewhere it was time – if youcould – to get out of doors and takein the wonders of a transformedlandscape.

If you couldn’t get into work, orhad to stay at home to keep an eye onthe little ones, it was time to makethe best of a bad job and get out ofdoors. Amateur photographers hada field day snapping images of thetype that come only once every fewyears, and hardened climbers of thesort that would head for the Alps orthe Scottish Highlands suddenlydiscovered that they had only tostep out of their own front doors tomake use of their crampons and iceaxes.

Students at Liverpool JohnMoores University found thatexams scheduled for Wednesdayhad been cancelled. But then theywere faced with some seriousdecision-making – use the time tocram in some extra revision in theaffected papers in law, engineeringand science, or stuff the academicwork and go out for a snowballfight?

It was a time when sometimes,you just had to do the traditionalthing and build a snowman, thebigger the better. Forget thepenguins in Liverpool – eventhough the weather was just rightfor them – there were snowmeneverywhere togged up in old clothesand no two of them exactly thesame.

And if going traditional with asnowman was not your thing, youcould always pay tribute to your

favourite television show with asnowdalek. All it took was a bit ofimagination, a sink plunger, akitchen whisk and a colander forthe top and the dementedpepperpots were on the marchagain, seemingly ready toexterminate anyone who crossedtheir path.

Pet husky dogs were drafted in todo what they were bred to do andpull sledges, and if your dog wasn’t ahusky, you could always try!

There was inevitably a downsidefor those out and about enjoyingthemselves.

It’s great fun slipping and slidingwhen you're prepared for it, but anunexpected fall can leave somenasty bruising, a twisted ankle,broken wrists or even worse.

Accident and emergency staff inhospitals across the region hadlittle time to go out and enjoythemselves as the level of injuriesfrom falls doubled at the beginningof the week.

And tempting as it was to ventureout across the ice in the frozen parklakes and take in a completelydifferent viewpoint, there wasalways the risk that it could crack atany minute.

Not worth it, said the health andsafety people, and although it’salways easy to poke fun at the elf ’n’safety brigade, this time they wereright. A plunge into icy water cankill even it it’s only as far as yourwaist, as some people found out totheir cost, though fortunately not inor around Liverpool.

byBILL LEECE

SNOW DRIFT: Children inBirkdale made the most of aday out of school Pictures:GARETHJONES/GRJ060110WEATHER-2 (above)

and GRJ060110WEATHER-3 (right)

TASTY: Knowsley Safari Park’s troop of baboonschow down on baked potatoes

Page 7: Merseyside Big Freeze, Liverpool Echo

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 NEWS 7★★★★

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PLENTY TO SHOUT ABOUT: Families and friends had fun in Newsham Park, TuebrookPicture: ANDREW TEEBAY/at060110eweather-4

SNOW AT LAST: This dog in Sefton Park felt right at homePicture: Gareth Jones/GRJ050110WEATHER-1

MUSH: Ellie Robinson,from Speke, enjoys afree ride Picture: PAULHEAPS/ PH060110FSNOW-2

Page 8: Merseyside Big Freeze, Liverpool Echo

NEWS Tuesday, January 12, 20108 ★★★★

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WINTER SCENE: St John’s Gardenspictured from the World Museum stepsPicture: COLIN LANE/CL241209POSTCARDWINTER-1

ICE DUNES: Arctic conditions on Southport beachPicture: GARETH JONES / GRJ050110WEATHER-20

SNOWBOUND: Liverpool’sAnglican Cathedral dominates thecity scene from the Radio CityTower Picture courtesy of Radio City