Many areas that bore the brunt of December’s storms could be at risk of flooding again this week as the extreme weather that brought chaos to the US at the weekend hits Britain.
The Environment Agency (EA) has warned that areas already affected by high river levels, including Cumbria, Lancashire and Yorkshire, are likely to be at risk on Tuesday and Wednesday, with very heavy rainfall possibly inundating drains and raising river levels again.
No rest for flood-stricken as further storms approach
Other areas at risk include the Midlands and the South West as well as central southern England. The EA is warning that high spring tides and high winds could combine to bring flooding to coastal areas in the South West and North West.
At the time of writing there are three flood warnings in place, all in the South West, and 19 flood alerts, including the Upper Derwent river in Cumbria. The latest picture can be found on the EA website, here.
Karl Melville, senior manager, network management at Cumbria County Council, told Transport Network: ‘River levels are already increasing and that will impact on our ability to get into rivers and carry out the temporary repairs needed to bridges. Our teams will be back on standby to deal with local incidents and the pre-positioning of pumps to known trouble spots is being carried out.’
The EA says it will be working closely with emergency services and that its teams will be working round the clock, checking flood defences, clearing watercourses and monitoring river levels.
Chris Wilding, national flood duty manager at the EA, said: ‘Heavy rainfall brings the risk of flooding on Tuesday and Wednesday across the South West, Midlands, Cumbria, Lancashire and Yorkshire, with the potential for high waves along south west and north west coasts.
‘We will issue flood warnings and alerts where necessary as rivers respond to the rainfall, which could also inundate drains, so people need to be ready for flash flooding in some places.’
