Snow causes travel chaos and power cuts

LONDON (Reuters) - Heavy snowfalls cut power supplies, closed schools and caused chaos for commuters and air passengers across much of the country on Friday, and forecasters said more was on the way.

The Met Office forecast further snow showers for Lincolnshire, Kent and East Anglia, as well as in northern Scotland, with temperatures staying below freezing through the night.

Britain's second busiest airport, Gatwick, and Luton airport reopened on Friday morning after snow on the runways forced them to close, causing delays to flights through the day.

Heathrow and Stansted stayed open, with only a few flights cancelled as a result of the weather.

Blizzards and icy roads caused accidents and huge tailbacks on major roads and left many people stranded in their cars.

The Automobile Association, Britain's biggest breakdown firm, said it was getting 1,500 breakdown calls every hour and expected to attend around 18,000 callouts for the day, more than double the national total for a normal Friday at this time of year.

Pete Barnao at the AA said car insurance claims were up by around a third by midday compared with an average winter Friday due to ice and snow-related accidents.

"With further snow forecast over the next few days, I would advise people to make journeys only if they are absolutely necessary," said Chief Inspector Jon Dodman, head of an emergency special operations centre at Essex Police.

Rail operators said some train services across southern England were cancelled or suffered severe delays.

In Cumbria, power company United Utilities apologised after hundreds of householders remained without gas on Friday. The company said it had restored power to 3,000 homes whose supplies were cut overnight as temperatures plummeted.

Energy supplier EDF said electricity was also cut off across parts of south-east and east England.

The bad weather closed more than 1,500 schools.

Saturday will see a bright start, but temperatures will struggle to rise above freezing and more sleet and snow are set to blow in from the Arctic over the weekend, the Met said. Although the bookies are slashing their odds for a white Christmas, the Met Office says it is still too early to predict whether the snow will continue into late next week.

(Reporting by Elizabeth Fullerton and Michael Holden; editing by Tim Castle)