High winds caused chaos on the roads and railways today, with fallen trees and damaged power lines creating havoc.

Traffic problems caused by lorries being blown over on motorways added to the chaos, with the A1 southbound at Selby Fork closed after a lorry was blown off the road.

In York, one family had a narrow escape when a tree fell on their car which was parked outside their house.

Rail users were dealt another body blow as the severe weather knocked out power lines at Peterborough - halting trains to and from London.

A few diesel trains still completed the journey to the capital but electric services could not get through, leaving many commuters stranded.

Services north started at Peterborough and there was massive disruption to the already-flimsy services provided by GNER.

Spokesman Dave Mallender said although it was not a good start to the day, the disruption was not as prolonged as first thought and services should recover later.

Notices were put up at York station this morning and a number of passengers chose not to travel.

Dominic Madell, 24, had been visiting friends in York from London and was due to return today for a meeting but decided this morning not to travel.

"I cannot face long delays and crowded trains," he said.

"It looks like I am going to miss the meeting anyway so I might as well as stay."

Meanwhile, one York family faces an expensive Christmas after waking up with a crash as a lime tree fell on their car.

Andy Fravigar, of St John's Crescent, told the Evening Press he had "a very lucky escape" as the tree crushed his Renault.

"If it had fallen differently it could have come into our front bedroom," he said. "Or worse, it could have fallen on the old people's home opposite."

He added that the family was hoping to visit relatives in Lincolnshire and will now have to hire a car. "We refuse to travel by train," he added.

The Renault 5, valued at £1,000 and bought in March this year, was only covered by third party, fire and theft insurance which may leave the family footing the bill themselves.

A spokesman for City of York Council said: "As far as we are concerned this is a one-off incident caused by a night of very heavy wind. We will be checking other trees in the area for signs of damage."

Also in York, there was a report of a loose hoarding on Lendal Bridge and standing water in Haley's Terrace, Huntington Road, Holgate Road, Knavesmire Gates and the junction of Scarcroft Road with Scarcroft Hill, as well as in Elvington.

Mike Tavener, City of York Council's structures and drainage manager, said the winds had battered the scaffolding on Lendal Bridge so badly, the bridge had been reduced to single lane traffic today so they could remove the scaffolding completely.

And high winds brought down power lines at Brayton, near Selby, cutting off the supply to 700 homes.

A spokeswoman for Yorkshire Electricity said power was re-routed to 600 customers but 100 remained cut off and were expected to remain so until at least noon. Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Environment Agency said a flood warning was in place on the River Ouse in York and the river is expected to peak 11ft 10ins above normal tomorrow morning.

At Elvington the River Derwent was on flood watch and there was also concern about the levels of a beck running through the village.

PA Weather Centre said last night's stormy weather was due to an area of low pressure coming in from the Atlantic.

Low-lying areas of North Yorkshire had around 10mm of rain and the North York Moors received double that.

A spokesman said: "The next couple of days are looking drier and colder from Friday. There will be frost at night and may even be some snow on Saturday."