A BLACKBURN woman narrowly escaped serious injury after a 60mph gust of wind tore a branch off a tree yards from her parked car.

Susan Thomas, 41, was visiting her mother at her housing association home, on Honey Hole, Grimshaw Park, Blackburn, when the incident happened at 10.30am yesterday.

She had just returned to her red Peugeot 405 and closed the door when she heard an "almighty" crack and saw the 15ft branch fall yards from her car.

The incident happened as East Lancashire was battered by gales.

But although there were incidents of trees falling, flooding and roads being blocked in the area people escaped unscathed and major structural damage was avoided.

Susan said: "I was scared senseless, if it had been the other one above me it would have crushed and killed me."

The 40ft tree is one of ten others on the small estate that residents claim are far too big and are an accident waiting to happen.

Tina Anderson, Mrs Thomas' 62-year-old mother, said she too was scared but also relieved that her daughter was alive.

"The branch dropped with a massive thud. It really shook me up, not only because it nearly hit my daughter but because it fell close to my window. We're all really lucky."

All First North Western trains from Manchester Piccadilly - Hadfield, Stockport - Chester, Chester - Holyhead and West Coast Virgin Service that passes through Preston were halted.

A fallen telephone cable in Weir, caused passing motorists problems when the wires dropped across Burnley Road -- the main road running through the village on Saturday.

BT's engineers were at the scene within an hour to help get things back to normal. A spokesman said: "Our engineers got out to the incident as soon as they could.

"Nationally there has been a lot of damage caused but as far as I am aware, East Lancashire seems to have escaped without too much damage.

"People's telephone lines in the Weir area will have been affected for a short time and we apologise for any inconvenience caused."

Further down the road in Bacup still on Burnley Road, huge puddles formed with branches strewn across the road resulting in motorists having to slow down and drive with extra caution.

And in Burnley there was minor flooding in Padiham Road because of leaves blocking drains.

A spokesman for the police said: "This problem was sorted out pretty quickly, the leaves were removed from the drains and then things were back to normal."

In Clayton-le-Moors there was temporary minor flooding by the Hyndburn Bridge.

Preston New Road was partially blocked for four hours after a tree fell near Samlesbury Hall. Motorists also had to contend with delays and obstructions as a number of other trees were blown over by the wind.

In Blackburn these were on Whalley New Road at the Brownhill roundabout, and in the Ribble Valley on Whalley Road near the Devil's Elbow, in the main road through Slaidburn, Elker Lane in Billington and Trapp Lane in Simstone.

The Manchester Weather Centre said the outlook for the next few days is better, with winds and rain subsiding.