this is bbc news, i'm ben brown. the headlines at 8pm: storm ciara hits the uk with winds of more than 90 miles an hour, causing severe travel disruption across the country. there is widespread flooding and an amber warning for wind remains in place across much of england and wales. i'm feeling very sad right now. sad for the people who have been flooded yet again. just a massive cloudburst and everything's come down at the same time and the drains were blocked instantly. a fourth person in the uk has tested positive for coronavirus and is being treated at the royal free hospital in london. counting is under way in the irish general election — early indications are that sinn fein is set for major gains. as tinseltown gears up for the academy awards, we'll look at what can be expected at tonight's ceremony.

and coming up after the sport, the travel show is in the maldives, meeting the people working to protect a unique underwater environment. good evening. after the most powerful storm to hit the uk so far this winter, there's been widespread disruption on the roads and railways, and thousands of homes have been left without power. storm ciara has brought heavy rain and flooding, with rivers bursting their banks. winds in excess of 90 miles an hour have led to power outtages right across england and parts of south wales. in scotland, part of a guest house collapsed into a river in hawick, in the borders area.

simonjones reports. siren blares. world war ii sirens called into action to warn of the danger of storm ciara, battering the entire country with rain and gusts of wind more than 90 miles an hour. this is west yorkshire counting the cost. parts of the calder valley became a no—go area. tens of thousands of homes have been left without electricity. i've been here eight and half years and this is the worst. never, never had this before. i'm feeling very sad right now. sad for the people that have been flooded yet again. sad that the barrier wasn't finished in time. you know, it's been a long process. the power of the storm was clear to see on the coast — from blackpool... ..to aberystwyth waves battered the shoreline. and in dover, the highly unusual decision to halt all ferries — it was just too dangerous to head to sea.

here on the coast, at times the gusts of wind are so strong that it's almost difficult to stay on your feet. add into that the lashing rain coming down, too. it's hardly surprising that the advice is "stay indoors if you can". what makes this bad weather unusual is that the whole country is feeling its effects. i've never seen an amber wind warning this large, as large as we had today, covering the bulk of england and also all of wales, and thatjust goes to show how widespread the impacts were forecast to be and have, in reality been. as well as that, we've got a yellow wind warning which covers the whole of the uk, and so really it has been a very widespread feature. 0n the roads, too, the situation wasn't any better. this lorry heading to dover didn't make it. and trees kept tumbling down. in london, passing motorists had a lucky escape. while in bedfordshire, a man was trapped for over an hour

in his car under a tree. 0n the railways, manyjourneys were either delayed or canceled, causing havoc at some of the country's largest stations. there were either speed restrictions, or trains not running at all. we went to king's cross to see what was happening and they wouldn't let us on the platform. they wouldn't let us anywhere near, really, so we thought come here, see if we can get to birmingham or manchester and then get a transpennine across to york or something. and it seems even worse. and the warning is we're not out of the woods yet — the storm will be with us for the rest of the day, with more bad weather expected tomorrow. we will talk about that any moment with louise. how bad has it been so far? we have seen winds of 90 mph. it has been a significant storm. probably the most significant since 2013, which was cold the doomsday storm, which was in october. we have had gusts widely in excess of 90

miles per. we had one of 64 mph, in mind that is very unusual. these winds have been really widespread across the uk. we have had it lot of rain ina across the uk. we have had it lot of rain in a very wide space of time. that has brought localised flooding —— localised flooding. we have had power outages, and we have had some fairly significant transport disruption. in some respects, it has good that it is a sunday and people are not trying to get to work. when i drove are not trying to get to work. when idrove in are not trying to get to work. when i drove in at lunchtime today, the roads were reasonably quiet and i think people were taking heed that they have been told about this term. hunkering down? . staying in and hopefully watching a good movie editing chocolate. or watching movies. what is happening right now? it is going, it is clearing away. it is moving off to europe and is going to have an impact in europe. strongest of the winds are probably

in europe, scandinavia, denmark, low countries, germany, significant impact potentially here. heavy rain, which is going to cause localised flooding. for us, we really need to emphasise that the weather for the next couple of days is just going to be pretty awful for next couple of days is just going to be pretty awfulfor some next couple of days is just going to be pretty awful for some of us because it is going to get noticeably colder, so it is going to stay very, very windy and for areas like scotland, northern ireland, northern england, we are going to see some frequent snow showers, so we could be talking about significant accumulations. i do not wa nt to significant accumulations. i do not want to hang my hat on this note are much, but we're going to see gales. it is going to drift the snow around. tomorrow morning for the early morning commute could be quite treacherous because there are going to bea treacherous because there are going to be a lot of snow showers, icy stretches and that will continue into tuesday. we now need to start emphasising this because everyone thinks that star mac has gone, but actually the north of the uk, scotland, northern ireland, could see some wintry showers —— storm

ciara. thank you very much indeed. thank you very much indeed. well, we heard that report from our correspondent simonjones a little earlier. he's spent the day in dover, where ferry service have been cancelled due to high winds —— and he gave us this update. the word i have been using all day is grim. as you can see, a lot of people have come down. it has become a bit of a spectacle. these ferries can cope with high winds and strong waves, but today it has simply been too much for them. down the coast from here, at hastings, there was a dramatic rescue in the sea because a surfer decided, despite the conditions, to head out into the sea. he was swept away along with his surfboard.

people did not know what had happened. there was a huge search, involving the coastguard helicopter and the lifeboats and he was found some three hours later, several miles away. in a nearby bay. and the coastguard are saying, it is very likely that he did not lose his life. they have been rather exasperated that, despite the warnings, people have been keen to come along to the coast and put themselves in danger in these conditions. yeah. and what about the travel situation? it has been a nightmare for people trying to get around today on the roads and the ra i lwa ys around today on the roads and the railways with those 90 males? —— 19 mph winds. we have had a lot of trees coming down, that has caused disruption as it is taking time to move them. particular problems on the railway network. kent, for example, what has been happening has been happening right across the country, but here in kent we've had trees that might have affected services. we've had parts of the

overhead power cables came down, that affected high—speed services. in addition, a train hit a tree in swa nley in addition, a train hit a tree in swanley and passengers were stuck on that train for several hours. fortu nately, that train for several hours. fortunately, nobody was injured there. we have had rather unusual delays caused by tramlines because we've had trampolines blowing onto the railway line, large trampolines that they have had to get network rail staff along to move and they had to check that the track has not been damaged and that has caused problems. agreement tonight and they we re problems. agreement tonight and they were running as it is likely to continue in parts of the country and there are weather warnings until midweek. let's speak now to debbie teale, who's in her home in myhemroyd fortu nately fortunately my house has not flooded, but the area around it has.

areas have been deluged. they were deluged in 2015. we have had millions are spent on flood defences, which had not been finished yet, but itjust does not seem to have made any difference. the floodwater has come up higher than what it did in 2015. it is just awful to see people's lives devastated yet again. in 2015, i helped out in our land, which is about five miles away from where i am now. “— about five miles away from where i am now. —— elland and the emotional toll that it took on the people there was just heartbreaking. and, as you are saying about things causing delays and havoc, people's livelihoods and garden furniture and kiddie's toys have been floating past on the river today and tomorrow, when they look out and find it all missing, yet again, it

is just heartbreaking. my heart has just aching for all those people. yet again. something needs to be done. we cannot keep doing this to people. it is not right. what do you think could be done by the authorities to stop this? they need to stop a building on flood plains. simple as that. they need to try and stop the building on. i know that elland got flooded because they built the industrial state on the flood plain there. it never flooded before, but since they built that, it flooded several times. i think the difficulty with my town is there isa the difficulty with my town is there is a river andy brooke, so we will have problems here, but if you build on flood plains, it has got to go somewhere and that will be on the river or the lowest —— there is a river or the lowest —— there is a river and a book. we have the people

whose homes have been flooded gone now? what are they doing tonight? some people have gone to relatives. and friends and family. there has been a lot of support on facebook, people offering spare rooms, spare houses, b&b accommodation, people have been very generous and helping people out. some are staying, staying put, they do not have any other option but to stay put. some have to protect their belongings. which i can imagine is a priority. did people see this coming? 0bviously, did people see this coming? obviously, this storm ciara was forecast for today, terrible conditions, but did you and your neighbours think there would be flooding again on the skill? no. we get lots of flood warnings —— on this scale. your must get complacent and ignore them and when i heard the siren go off at half past six this morning, three towns, notjust ours, it was quite a and to think, oh, we

90, it was quite a and to think, oh, we go, but hejust it was quite a and to think, oh, we go, but he just seem to come it was quite a and to think, oh, we go, but hejust seem to come up it was quite a and to think, oh, we go, but he just seem to come up so quickly that you just have trouble trying to lift everything to higher ground. even though we didn't flood, you still move things to higher ground just in case because you know onceit ground just in case because you know once it starts, it is very difficult for you to get a hold of it. you just have to let it come in and do its business and then wait for it to go and that is when all the emotional toil starts to take place. and you realise the things that you have lost and things that have floated away, like i say. i have been watching the river today, just seeing kiddie's toys floating down the hill, tables, trampolines, everything has gone down this river today, i do not know where it will end up, but it has all gone floating by. a very upsetting day for you, i know, but thank you for taking the time to talk to us. thank you very much indeed.

you can keep up to date with the changing weather developments in your area todayjust head to your local bbc radio station, and of course, the bbc news website. and we'll find out how this story — and many others — are covered in tomorrow's front pages at 10.30 and 11.30 this evening in the papers — our guests joining me tonight are the journalist and campaigner lynn faulds wood, and the pollster joe twyman, who is director of deltapoll uk. another person has tested positive for the coronavirus in england, bringing the total number of cases to four across the uk. a flight carrying more british nationals from china, has touched down at raf brize norton, with passengers being taken to a conference centre in milton keynes, for 14 days quarantine. here's our health editor, hugh pym. a bumpy ride, but at least the passengers on this final evacuation flight from wuhan were a lot closer to home.

about 120 british travellers disembarked. they were put on buses for a similar convoy to the one which had taken others to a hospital in the wirral a week ago. these were taken to a conference facility in milton keynes for a two—week quarantine. facility in milton keynes they facility in milton keynes will stay in rooms like this and they will stay in rooms like this and for those who do not have them, consoles, tablets and mobile phones will be lent to those who do not have them and they will have access to netflix. there was news elsewhere of the fourth coronavirus case in this country. the latest patient, who has tested positive for the virus in the uk is being treated here at the royal free hospital in north london at its specialist infectious diseases treatment unit. it has emerged that this

case is linked to one the chinese ambassador in london was seeking to reassure the british public. there is no reason to panic. the chinese government has adopted the most comprehensive, strict, conventional, control measures. conventional control measures. the world health organization said it was hard to predict the future spread of the virus. the question remains as to whether we are in a live phase and the rate of infection may pick up or whether we are seeing more of what is the natural history of the disease and that is... it is way too soon to tell that. but it is why these clusters are very unfortunate and we feel particularly sorry for families who get caught up in this. it is a very frightening time. quarantining is a key part

of attempts to stop the virus spreading in the uk. those who arrived today can only hope that they are given the all clear after 14 days. infections and deaths from the coronavirus are still on the rise in china but in a small sign of hope, at least according to official figures, the rate of increase may be slowing. although severe travel restrictions remain in many cities across the country, trains and planes are starting to become busier as the extended new year festival holiday comes to an end asjohn sudworth now reports. it's lantern festival, traditionally marked with a lavish gala, but this year there is not an audience member in sight. the fear of contagion is everywhere, from the fever checkpoints,

the masks on literally everybody‘s faces, and the careful monitoring of people's movements. in the almost impossible balancing act between containing an epidemic and getting its economy moving again, china is turning to its vast network of neighbourhood committees, the old tools of mass mobilisation. but while workers may be trickling back to the cities, the continued uncertainty means all britons are still being advised to leave china. we are currently seeing numbers of infections double every four to five days. we do not know what implications that has. we've seen at the chinese are put into place local transport measures, some cities and towns have been closed down, so it is getting more difficult to leave china if that is what people plan to do, so that is why we advise people to think about

leaving. we know that the evacuation flight has got out of wuhan, are we confident that most people who wanted to get out from the epicentre have managed to? we have not got everybody out, we know that. unfortunately, two people feel the temperature checks early this morning. they have had to go back into wuhan and we are in touch with them and we will try and support them to get them onto another country's flight. girl screams. some enforcement measures still appear extreme. but the lantern festival has brought what seems like good news, 0fficial official figures show the rate of increase in infections may be slowing. sport, and for a full round up, from the bbc sport centre, here's 0llie. although i understand that you're not happy with that. you wanted some football. liverpool were not playing

today, so i'm not bothered. we will have some football for you any moment. we will start with the cricket. england's one—day cricket captain eoin morgan wants his team to be more ruthless. they have drawn the series against south africa with victory injohannesburg but he says he's disappointed with how they limped over the line they put south africa into bat and they set a target of 257. captain quinten de kock with 69. england's reply got off to a quick start, some big hitting from jonny bairstow. joe denley top scored with 66 but a flurry of late wickets saw england's chase wobble a little, although they did make it home with over 6 overs to spare. moeen ali on his first return to england duty, after taking a break from test cricket, scored the winning runs, victory by 2 wickets and the series is drawn at 1—all, they now play a 3—match t20 series. that starts on wednesday. he does your football.

sheffield united are back up to fifth in the table after coming from behind to beat bournemouth at bramall lane. this was the only match in the premier league today after manchester city vs west ham was postponed because of the weather. bournemouth came into the game looking to make it 3 wins out of three in the league. callum wilson opened the scoring for them inside 15 minutes. billy sharp equalised for the blades just before the break, his first goal since the opening day of the season and that was also against bournemouth. and substitutejohn lundstram scored the winner inside the last 10 minutes, 2—1 the final score and they are now just 2 points behind 4th placed chelsea, but they have played one game more. we've just rolled on a drawdown to the next game. we go again and we have a bit of a break now. we'll go again and it has to be that way. we wa nt to again and it has to be that way. we want to achieve something this season. want to achieve something this season. we do not want to take the foot of the gas and i will not allow that and the players understand that. celtic remain on track for a fourth

consecutive domestic treble after beating clyde 3—0 to reach the scottish cup quarter finals. celtic will now face stjohnstone. hibernian, who also won today, have been drawn against championship side inverness. rangers are away at hearts, plenty to be decided in the other tie, with the winner of the replay between st mirren and motherwell taking on either aberdeen or kilmarnock. france are top of the six nations table, ahead of ireland on points difference. the french beat italy 35—22 today in paris. three first half tries for the home side, including this from gregory alldritt, helped them to a 13 point lead at the break. france secured a bonus point with two more tries in the second half. baptiste seran with a fantastic solo effort. italy, scored three tries and were much improved afterfailing to muster a single point against wales last weekend but that's their 24th consecutive six nations defeat.

the women's six nations match between scotland and england today was postponed because of storm ciara, but keira griffin, led ireland to victory in their game against wales in dublin. they won by 31 points to 12 in very difficult conditions. they had four different try scorers and a penalty try, as they battled though the worst of the weather in the second half. that now moves ireland to the top of the table with two wins out of two. great britain's women basketballers have failed to qualify for the olympics this summer. they finished their qualifying tournament in serbia without a single win. they lost 79—69 to spain today and that followed defeats against china and south korea. those three sides have secured a ticket to the tokyo games. i'm proud. we fought every game. we played hard together and we tried. we tried. and, you know, some people look

at us i think we shouldn't be here and we are here. we made a statement for gb basketball. regardless we got a ticket or not, but we are proud of our team. that's all the sport for now. there could be a major shift in the poltical landscape of the republic of ireland, with the nationlists of sinn fein set to make significant gains in the general election. an exit poll suggests there's now a three—way tie between all the main parties, including prime minister leo va radka r‘s fine gael. counting is still under way. there is some flash photography in this update from chris page. so far, the results that we have, they've started coming in, do confirm that that sinn fein surge is materializing, 23 seats declared. so far, ten of them have gone to sinn fein. now, the final picture isn't going to reflect that because sinn fein have run fewer candidates than than their two main rivals.

that means that basically their candidates will be elected first under the proportional representation voting system they have in this country. so we can expect the votes of the two centrist parties fine gael and fianna fail to increase increases. and other smaller parties to to gain representatives in the irish parliament. but it is clear that sinn fein have significantly taken ground. leo varadkar himself, the prime minister, the leader of fine gael. he's acknowledged that this result shows that there's not a three party system in ireland. for decades, government here has been dominated by fine gael. sinn fein, at the very least, level pegging with those parties. they may top the pool in terms of the number of first preference votes. so all in all, as you say,

a very significant, very historic even shift in politics in the irish republic. fianna fail and fine gael fianna failand fine gaelare fianna fail and fine gael are still ina fianna fail and fine gael are still in a state of denial and there are still not listening to what the people have said. i want us to have a government for the people. i want us a government for the people. i want us to have, ideally, with no fianna fail or no fine gael in it. i have started the contact with other parties to explore, over the next days, whether or not that is a possibility. so mary lou mcdonald, the president of sinn fein, definitely a great day for her and her party in the last hour or so, we've also heard from the man who currently occupies the prime minister's office, as i say, leo varadkar of fine gael. and he has once again, as he did numerous times during the election campaign, ruled out any prospect of going into coalition with sinn fein. it seems that we have now a three party system, three parties, all getting roughly the same number of votes, roughly

the same number of seats. and that is going to make forming a government quite difficult. it's not even clear yet whether any the two parties together will have enough to form a majority in the next, and see what the lie of the land is at tonight and tomorrow in terms of coalition speculation. you know, i made my position and everything. 0ur party, very fair, actually campaigned for us. a coalition with sinn fein is not an option, but we are willing to talk to other parties that possibility of forming a government, one that can lead the country forward for the next five years. so fine gael will not go into coalition with sinn fein. the other main party, fianna fail, led by the former us foreign minister mehul maatz, and also consistent in the company into saying it won't go into government with sinn fein either. and mehul martin has said in the last few hours, whenever the election results have started to come in, that he still sees significant policy incompatibilities with sinn

fein. but he also said that he was a democrat and he would respect the will of the people. so perhaps a door being held ajar there for some kind of arrangement between fianna fail and sinn fein, after all. but i think all the parties will wait and see how the final number of seats shakes down before they really get the coalition calculators out. one thing that is clear, even at this still relatively early stage, negotiations to form a government are going to be far from straightforward. chris page reporting from dublin. the 0scars will be handed out in a glittering ceremony in los angeles later tonight. the world war one drama ‘1917,’ and from south korea, the film ‘parasite,’ are the frontrunners for best picture. but much of the build—up has been dominated by criticism over the lack of diversity among the nominees. 0ur arts editor, will gompertz reports. margot robbie and charlize theron are fox news employees who bring

down their seedy ceo, a man who made sexual harassment part of his job description. both are nominated for an oscar at tonight's academy awards, two years after the launch of the #metoo movement, which saw a new commission set up to look into bullying and abuse in hollywood. can you give me a sense of how you see the scale of the problem? the scale of the problem and the range of the problem, i think is really enormous. i could pluck you out and move you to the front of the line. but i need to know that you're loyal. i need you to find a way to prove it. we have this history in an industry where people look the other way. what practical measures need to be put into place? we're going to put in place a report and response system. so our response system includes investigations. and what we know is that independent investigations are the most important thing that you can offer. don't you tell me what i can do. harriet tubman wasn't one to put up with injustice and wrongdoing.

if i'm free, my family should be, too. i made up my mind. judy garland. the orders are to deliver a message calling off tomorrow morning's attack. sam mendez, first world war drama 1917 was the big winner at last week's baftas. to repeat the feat in hollywood, the british director will have to see off competition from todd phillips' joker starring joaquin phoenix who is hotly tipped to win best actor and bong joon—ho's parasite, a tale of south korean inequality, which could become the first foreign language film to win best picture. we'll find out if it does later tonight. will gompertz bbc news, los angeles. we'll have a special programme on the oscars here on the bbc news channel at 9.30am tomorrow morning.