Britain faces storm chaos and outages Britain has been hit by a fresh band of stormy weather, with more than 17,500 homes thought to be without power and rail services across the south of England disrupted. Winds of 102mph hit parts of Britain on Thursday night, adding to the difficulties caused by storms on Christmas Eve which brought chaos to the train networks and left hundreds of flights grounded at Gatwick airport. Gusts of 102mph were recorded in the Welsh village of Aberdaron, while wind speeds of more than 70mph hit parts of Yorkshire and Scotland, the Met Office said. Trains have been severely affected in some parts of the country and teams have been called in to deal with landslips, flooding and removing fallen trees and other debris. "It's just been unbelievable," said a spokesman for Network Rail, who himself had trouble getting to work after train companies cancelled dozens of morning services into London so a "route proving" train could check on track damage after the gales. "What we have learnt is that clarity is everything," he said, explaining it was better to tell passengers at the start of the day that trains were not going to run until midday rather than trying to run normal services that were then disrupted by debris on the track. The Rail Delivery Group, which represents train companies, said services were improving and apologised for the delays. We'd like to apologise to passengers whose journeys over the festive period have been affected by the bad weather of the last few days. Strong winds have damaged overhead wires and brought down trees on to lines. Hundreds of rail staff have been working round the clock to clear tracks but some services have started later than planned to ensure passengers can complete their journeys safely. The line between London and Portsmouth via Haslemere is closed because of four landslips, and is not expected to be reopened until after the weekend. The West Coast main line is closed north of Oxenholme until mid-afternoon for repairs to its power supply and there are delays of two hours on the East Coast main line north of Doncaster because of high winds. Companies including First, Arriva, Southeastern and South West were all warning of cancellations and delays on their lines, while some flights have been diverted from Dublin Airport. There was no repeat of the chaos seen at Gatwick on Christmas Eve, however, where hundreds of flights were grounded after a power cut.