LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s emergency response committee met on Sunday after prolonged heavy rain caused widespread flooding in northwest England and forced emergency services to evacuate residents from their homes.
The meeting was called after storms battered the country overnight, killing one man and leaving hundreds of homes flooded and without power. Police declared a major incident and coastguards were called in to rescue stranded residents.
Environment Secretary Elizabeth Truss said the government committee had been called to “urgently assess the scale of the floods and ensure the response remains coordinated, effective and gets help to those affected as quickly as possible.”
Police said they believed one man was killed in London, which also experienced high winds, after he was blown into the side of a moving bus. There were no other reports of deaths or injuries.
Britain has suffered several heavy floods in recent years. In 2014 thousands of acres of farmland in the south of the country were submerged for weeks and the northwest region was badly flooded in both 2009 and 2005.
A soldier carries a woman from a flooded house on a residential street in Carlisle, Britain December 6, 2015. REUTERS/Phil Noble
Rescue workers pull a boat along a flooded residential street in Carlisle, Britain December 6, 2015. REUTERS/Phil Noble
Rescue workers pull a boat full of rescued residents along a flooded residential street in Carlisle, Britain December 6, 2015. REUTERS/Phil Noble
Residents carry their belongings as they walk along a flooded residential street in Carlisle, Britain December 6, 2015. REUTERS/Phil Noble
Rescue workers help a woman through a flooded residential street in Carlisle, Britain December 6, 2015. REUTERS/Phil Noble
Rescue workers pull a boat full of rescued residents along a flooded residential street in Carlisle, Britain December 6, 2015. REUTERS/Phil Noble
A local man wades through flood water on a residential street in Carlisle, Britain December 6, 2015. REUTERS/Phil Noble
A man holds his dog as he wades through a flooded residential street in Carlisle, Britain December 6, 2015. REUTERS/Phil Noble
Rescue workers are seen helping locals during flooding caused by heavy rainfall in the Warwick Road area of Carlisle, Britain December 6, 2015. REUTERS/Phil Noble
Rescue workers remove an elderly man from a flooded house on a residential street in Carlisle, Britain December 6, 2015. REUTERS/Phil Noble
Rescue workers remove local residents by boat from a flooded residential street in Carlisle, Britain December 6, 2015. REUTERS/Phil Noble
Rescue workers escort a local man along a makeshift pontoon through flood water on a residential street in Carlisle, Britain December 6, 2015. REUTERS/Phil Noble
Rescue workers evacuate local residents by boat from a flooded residential street in Carlisle, Britain December 6, 2015. REUTERS/Phil Noble
Water cascades over the Pitlochry Dam during a controlled release from Loch Faskally into the river Tummel, in Pitlochry, Scotland December 5, 2015. REUTERS/Russell Cheyne
Residents move their belongings through flood waters in the Warwick Road area of Carlisle, Britain December 6, 2015. REUTERS/Phil Noble
Local residents canoe through flood water as they help to rescue people on a residential street in Carlisle, Britain December 6, 2015. REUTERS/Phil Noble
A local resident stumbles as he wades through flood water on a residential street in Carlisle, Britain December 6, 2015. REUTERS/Phil Noble
Prime Minister David Cameron said on Twitter that the army had been mobilised to help those affected.
“Looking down the main street where I am now I can’t tell where the river starts and where it ends … it’s dirty brown water. It’s a real mess,” Mark Walker, a local teacher, told Reuters by telephone from the badly-affected city of Carlisle.
He said the water was waist high at points along the road and had flooded local businesses including a car dealership and a convenience store. Emergency services had been evacuating homes by boat and helicopter, he said.
Britain’s national weather service, the Met Office, said in one of the worst affected areas 201.8 millimetres (7.94 inches) of rain had fallen on Saturday – only slightly below the 215 mm usually seen during the whole of December. Gusts of wind reached 90 miles per hour, a spokesman said.
The worst of the storm responsible for the flooding, named ‘Desmond’ by the Met office, had passed according to forecasters but more wet weather was expected in coming days.
(Reporting by William James; Editing by Clelia Oziel)
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