By Emily Rooney
Storm Ciara caused disruption around Leicester last Sunday with the Leicester Comedy Festival being heavily affected.
Comedians Mark Watson and Jason Byrne had to cancel their shows due to the weather conditions.
As well as this, some roads were closed, including part of Lower Brown Street, close to De Montfort University (DMU) and the Sue Townsend Theatre, due to roof tiles coming off a residential building.
In a tweet, Watson said: “IMPORTANT: I’ve had to pull the Leicester show tonight because of the insane travel conditions. The show is about how I survived three weeks on @TheIsland so it’s doubly embarrassing/ironic. We are finding a new date right now.”
Jason Byrne also missed his solo show at the Leicester Comedy Festival, as his flight got diverted to Liverpool, but he made it to Leicester in time for the UK Pun Championships yesterday.
Taking to Twitter to address missing his solo show, he said: “So sorry @leicscomedyfest for me missing the 8pm show, but I was up in Storm Ciara trying three landings into Birmingham, for hours, but we had the best female @aerlingus pilot, ever!!! Eventually she got us to Liverpool. She was amazing, calm, inspirational #stormciara #Leicester”
A well as the disruption to the Leicester Comedy Festival, trains were cancelled and delayed. Bus shelters outside Leicester Train Station suffered significant damage, with one of them being completely blown over from the gale force winds.
Leicestershire Search and Rescue also tweeted to let Leicestershire residents know that severe weather warnings were in place for Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.
Advice from the Met Office on traveling during a storm can be found here.
