13 Die as Devastating Winds Hit Britain : Gusts of 110 M.P.H. Batter English Coast; London Blacked Out

At least 13 people were killed and hundreds were injured Friday as hurricane-force winds hit southern England and caused extensive damage, blacking out London for the first time since World War II.

For nearly six hours, winds gusting up to 94 m.p.h. in London and up to 110 m.p.h. along exposed areas of the coast brought chaos that paralyzed much of the country south of the Midlands.

“We have just experienced the worst, most widespread night of disaster in the Southeast of England since the war,” Home Secretary Douglas Hurd commented.

Weather experts described the storm, which hit with little warning, as one of the worst in Britain in 300 years.

“We were certainly taken by surprise,” Roger Hunt, a spokesman for the London Weather Center, told reporters. “We completely underestimated the force of the storm.”

France, Spain Battered

The same storm battered northern France on Thursday night and Friday morning, killing four people. It had hit northwestern Spain on Thursday and was blamed for one death.

In Portugal, torrential rains whipped by gales blocked roads, uprooted trees, cut power lines and flooded neighborhoods in the central and northern regions. Four people died and nine were injured.

In the British capital, emergency services were swamped with calls. At 8 a.m., roads in central London that are normally clogged with commuter traffic were eerily empty. Only the sirens of police and fire department vehicles could be heard above the roar of the wind.

An official of the London Electricity Board said, “At one point, the whole of London was blacked out for the first time since the Blitz in World War II.”

By late morning, the storm had dissipated and moved off to the northeast over the North Sea. Essential services were gradually restored in London, but many businesses remained closed.

Trading Suspended

The London Stock Exchange and other financial markets suspended trading. Legal proceedings were held up at the Old Bailey after structural engineers expressed concern that the dome of the central criminal courts building was in danger of collapsing.

In outlying areas, mainly south of London, an estimated million residents were still without electricity as night fell. Rail service in several areas was still disrupted.

British Rail canceled all train service for several hours in the southern and eastern parts of the country. A three-mile stretch of the main rail line in Kent, in the southeast, was blocked by 140 fallen trees.

Trees and other debris blocked most major roads into London. Fences were down in rural areas and motorists were warned to be alert for roaming livestock.

In Hampshire, scores of residents were evacuated to emergency relief centers after the roofs of their houses were blown away. Electric power lines were down in several areas, cutting off power to London and large areas of Kent, Hampshire and Surrey.

Fallen Trees

Most of the people who were killed in the storm were hit by falling trees or were trapped in collapsing buildings.

In the coastal city of Hastings, 60 miles south of London, one person was killed when a hotel’s chimney crashed through the roof.

A popular amusement pier on the Isle of Wight, dating back to the Victorian Era, collapsed into the English Channel. Farmers on the island asked the government to declare it a disaster area. Winds on the island were clocked at 110 m.p.h. before the recording instrument was blown away.

Heathrow and Gatwick airports were closed for a time. Dover, one of the world’s busiest passenger seaports, was closed for the first time in years. Two cross-channel ferries with 800 passengers had to lie off the coast for hours.

The most visible damage involved trees, thousands of which were uprooted from ground softened by several days of rain. Members of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s Cabinet, emerging from an emergency meeting after the storm, had to step over fallen branches to reach their cars.

Seven Oaks Lost Six

The town of Seven Oaks in Kent lost six of the seven ancient oaks from which it took its name, according to the British Broadcasting Corp. And the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, on the southwestern outskirts of London, lost many trees, including old and rare varieties.

“Kew Gardens will never be the same in our lifetime,” Christine Brandt, a spokeswoman, said. “Huge oak trees, black walnut and tulip trees are gone. It will take years and years to regrow them.”