More cities under threat in Britain's worst floods in memory
Afp, London
The fate of more English cities, towns and villages hung in the balance yesterday as emergency crews built up defences against rising waters during Britain's worst floods in living memory. The floods produced images of the town of Tewkesbury turned into an island, a helmeted rescuer carrying a baby in a blanket, an elderly woman winched from her home by a military helicopter and people wading through thigh-high waters. The government's crisis response committee, Cobra, met late Monday and again on Tuesday as some rivers topped levels reached during the floods in 1947, even as meteorologists forecast more rain. A spokesman for Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who chaired the latest crisis meeting, defended the government's actions amid charges it had been too slow to prepare for floods even though heavy rains had been forecast since last week. "It was very difficult to predict exactly how the floods would affect the area. These were extraordinary events," Michael Ellam told reporters. In addition to large swathes of central and western England which have been submerged for days, rising rivers threatened the London commuter town of Reading, the royal castle city of Windsor and Abingdon, an Oxfordshire town. "The main focus now is on Oxford (and) Abingdon," an Environment Agency spokesman told AFP.
|
Gloucester resident Norman Aitken walks through his home, which was severely flooded when the river Severn burst its banks due to heavy rainfall yesterday. Residents of Central and Western England face a huge clean up operation after days of heavy rainfall that made thousands of homes unliveable. PHOTO: AFP |
