The UK’s Met Office had issued a rare red alert for high winds overnight to Saturday morning (0300 to 1100 GMT) covering parts of Wales and southwest England.

The government warned three million people living in the area with a siren-like alert on their phones to stay at home on Friday night.

Darragh, the fourth named storm of the season, is also expected to bring heavy rain through the weekend, with more than 100 flood warnings and alerts in place across the UK.

One man died after a tree fell onto his van during the storm, police in Lancashire, northwest England said.

In Wales, the Met Office estimated gusts of up to 150 kmph (93 mph), which knocked out power for over 50,000 people, according to the PA news agency. Power cuts affected 86,000 homes in England, Scotland and Wales, according to the Energy Networks Association. Trains were disrupted or suspended on several routes including from Glasgow to Edinburgh in Scotland, and between Cambridge and Stansted Airport in eastern England.

In Northern Ireland, thousands were left without power, and several bus and train services were suspended or delayed. […] In Ireland, which issued an “orange” wind warning, 400,000 people were left without electricity, according to the RTE news agency. Dublin Airport said a “a number of flights scheduled for Saturday morning have been cancelled by airlines” due to the storm.