BRITAIN'S bleak midwinter continued today with strong winds, floods and fallen trees causing chaos to travellers trying to get away for Christmas.

Many rail services were disrupted, with some companies unable to run any trains at all, while a power outage at Gatwick airport's north terminal added to flight problems.

On the roads, many major routes were flooded or blocked by fallen trees, with Kent, Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex and Cornwall among the affected counties.

The port of Dover had to close overnight due to the strong winds but reopened again at 7.30am.

With the worst of the storms now likely to affect Scotland and Northern Ireland, the severe weather has caused four deaths.

A man's body was pulled from the River Rothesay in Ambleside in Cumbria, while a woman died in a river in Gwynedd, North Wales.

A woman was killed in a car accident in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, last night and a man died in a multiple-collision crash near Bodmin in Cornwall on Sunday night.

The Environment Agency issued hundreds of flood warnings across all of England and Wales, with a severe flood warning - the highest level, warning of danger to life - in south west England, where properties were expected to flood.

Those working right up to Christmas and those getting away for the holidays faced severe disruption to rail services.

Have you been affected? Let us know...