LONDON, Jan 6 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Major rivers across Britain were flooded after heavy rain, with the government issuing more than 300 flood warnings, travel operators announcing serious disruption and around 1,000 homes suffering damage so far.
A succession of storms in recent weeks meant prolonged rainfall that started on Thursday fell on saturated ground and quickly caused already-swollen rivers and waterways to burst their banks across England and Wales.
The storms have also caused flooding in other parts of Europe in recent days.
The River Trent in central England flooded, prompting the local authority to declare a major incident. London’s fire service said it had to escort around 50 people to safety late on Thursday after a canal in the east of the capital overflowed.
“We have woken up to, as many people will see, to a very wet situation across the country,” Caroline Douglass, the director in charge of flood management at the Environment Agency, said.
Douglass said around 1,000 homes had so far been flooded. Great Western Railways said its lines in three parts of the south of the country were closed. Roads in the worst affected areas were also closed.
Heavy rains also left parts other parts of Europe under water as a cold snap gripped northern areas of the continent.
Water levels remained extremely high in the Netherlands on Friday. Many flood plains in the low-lying nation were inundated and residents in some towns around the Ijsselmeer inland sea near Amsterdam used sandbags to protect their homes.
Dozens of Ukrainian refugees were evacuated overnight from a hotel near the town of Monnickendam north of Amsterdam after it was cut off by floodwaters, local broadcaster NH Nieuws reported.
Several roads in the north and northwest of the Netherlands were closed Friday because of flooding.
In France, a flood warning issued at the highest level was lifted near the Belgian border as waters receded.
But several hundred people had to be evacuated and thousands of homes were damaged in a repeat of floods that hit the same region of France in November.
French authorities warned that waterways would likely remain extremely high in the coming weeks. — NNN-AGENCIES
