Sign Up
..... Connect Australia with the world.
Categories

Posted: 2020-02-16 15:04:00

The Met Office said the highest wind gust recorded was 146km/h at Aberdaron in north Wales on Saturday. It also said a total of 156.2mm of rain fell at Crai Reservoir in the Welsh county of Powys over 48 hours to Sunday morning.

Sand bags in the village of Naburn, near York in the north-east of England, on Sunday as the the River Ouse continued to rise.

Sand bags in the village of Naburn, near York in the north-east of England, on Sunday as the the River Ouse continued to rise.Credit:Getty Images

The River Taff burst its banks in the Welsh town of Pontypool and severe flood warning were issued for the River Neath in south Wales and the River Teme further north.

A total of 375 flood warnings were in place Sunday across the UK, from the north of Scotland through to Cornwall in south-west England.

Following a month's worth of rain in 48 hours, John Curtin, the executive director of flood and coastal risk management at the Environment Agency, said in a tweet that England has the most flood warnings and lower-level alerts in force – 594 – than on any other day on record.

Loading

The local authority in Herefordshire, an English county that borders central Wales, declared a major incident amid widespread flooding and said it was focusing on making sure vulnerable residents were evacuated.

Flood warnings could remain in place for a while since much of Britain is still saturated from last week's Storm Ciara, which left eight people dead across Europe.

"Whilst the heaviest rain has cleared from Northern Ireland and Scotland, England and Wales will continue to see heavy rain on Sunday, with a risk of severe flooding in places," said Andy Page, the Met Office's chief meteorologist.

The fourth named storm of Europe's winter season has already been blamed for the deaths of two men who were pulled Saturday from the sea in separate searches off England's south-eastern coast.

Hundreds of flights were cancelled due to the high winds while train services were repeatedly disrupted by flooding, affecting tens of thousands of passengers as British families leave for the mid-winter school break.

On Saturday, around 75 British army personnel and 70 reservists helped out communities in the flood-hit Calder Valley region in West Yorkshire, constructing flood barriers and repairing damaged flood defences.

AP

View More
  • 0 Comment(s)
Captcha Challenge
Reload Image
Type in the verification code above