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Flood
water continues to rise after the river Thames burst its banks in
Datchet. The... Read More. Flood water continues to rise after the river
Thames burst its banks in Datchet.
U.K. Towns West of London May Face Severe Thames Flooding
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Flood water continues to rise after the river Thames burst its banks in Datchet. The... Read More
Waterlogged towns on the River
Thames west of London are bracing for more flooding as the U.K.
struggles to deal with the wettest weather since 1766.
The Environment Agency has 16 severe flood warnings in place, 14 of them along England’s most famous waterway. Towns in London’s commuter belt including Chertsey, Egham and Datchet are affected. Two warnings continue in Somerset in southwest England, where some roads have been cut off since December.
Two months of record-breaking rain have been fueled by what the Met Office, the U.K. weather service, says is a persistent track of storms related to an unusually strong North Atlantic jetstream that usually flows north of Scotland and is more southerly now. There’s little respite likely for southern England with meteorologists forecasting rain every day through Feb. 14.
“There is a high risk that the Thames, the Severn and the Wye will flood in the middle of the week,” Communities Secretary Eric Pickles, the government minister coordinating the response to the floods, told lawmakers yesterday in London. The Severn is the U.K.’s longest river.
Following a meeting of the government emergency committee, COBR, last night, Pickles issued a statement updating government actions on the flooding, including “centralizing the control of sandbags, ordering additional temporary flood defenses and ensuring that existing defenses are being shared and deployed where necessary.”
A succession of storms and tidal surges have buffeted Britain since December, flooding more than 8,000 homes and damaging coastal infrastructure, including the main railway connecting the southwestern city of Plymouth with the rest of England.
While Network Rail is working on a plan to reconnect the rail line to the southwest, two of three rail routes to Exeter, Devon, southwest England, are open, Pickles said. He said additional flights have been scheduled to Newquay on the southwest coast and air fares have been reduced by five pounds.
Prime Minister David Cameron traveled yesterday to affected areas in southwest England, his second such visit in four days. He urged ministers and the Environment Agency to focus on the floods for the moment after Pickles and the agency’s chairman, Chris Smith, traded accusations over the handling of the crisis.
The city councils of Oxford, on the Thames, and Worcester, on the Severn, warned of road shutdowns, and the National Rail Enquiries website reported disruptions to services across southern and central England, citing inundations and landslides.
“Extreme weather will continue to threaten communities this week,” Environment Agency Chief Executive Officer Paul Leinster said in a statement. Further severe flooding is expected “into Tuesday along the Thames in Berkshire and Surrey. River levels are high across southwest, central and southern England and further rain has the potential to cause significant flooding.”
“If the accumulation of extreme weather claims extends into February, the insurance industry could be facing a bill of 500 million pounds ($820 million) for the exceptional autumn and winter weather claims, matching the cost of the big freeze in 2010,” James Rakow, an insurance partner at Deloitte LLP in London, said in an e-mail.
The Met Office issued a yellow warning for rain, the third-highest level, across a swathe of southern England for today, predicting more than 30 millimeters (1.2 inches) in parts of the southwest.
Total rainfall for December and January across southeast and central southern England was 372.2 millimeters, the wettest such period since detailed data was first published in 1910, according to the Met Office. The January total for the region was the highest in data stretching to 1766, the office said.
A further 600 homes flooded in the past week, according to the Environment Agency, adding to the 7,500 homes nationwide that Environment Secretary Owen Paterson said on Feb. 3 had been affected since the beginning of December.
The agency’s defenses have protected 1.3 million homes in the past 10 weeks, according to Chairman Smith, who hit back yesterday at criticism over his handling of the disaster, saying investment had been hampered by government rules.
“It’s not only the overall allocation for flood-defense work that limits what we can do,” Smith wrote in the Guardian. “There is also a limit on the amount we can contribute to any individual scheme, determined by a benefit-to-cost rule imposed on us by the Treasury.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net
end quote from:
The Environment Agency has 16 severe flood warnings in place, 14 of them along England’s most famous waterway. Towns in London’s commuter belt including Chertsey, Egham and Datchet are affected. Two warnings continue in Somerset in southwest England, where some roads have been cut off since December.
Two months of record-breaking rain have been fueled by what the Met Office, the U.K. weather service, says is a persistent track of storms related to an unusually strong North Atlantic jetstream that usually flows north of Scotland and is more southerly now. There’s little respite likely for southern England with meteorologists forecasting rain every day through Feb. 14.
“There is a high risk that the Thames, the Severn and the Wye will flood in the middle of the week,” Communities Secretary Eric Pickles, the government minister coordinating the response to the floods, told lawmakers yesterday in London. The Severn is the U.K.’s longest river.
Following a meeting of the government emergency committee, COBR, last night, Pickles issued a statement updating government actions on the flooding, including “centralizing the control of sandbags, ordering additional temporary flood defenses and ensuring that existing defenses are being shared and deployed where necessary.”
A succession of storms and tidal surges have buffeted Britain since December, flooding more than 8,000 homes and damaging coastal infrastructure, including the main railway connecting the southwestern city of Plymouth with the rest of England.
Military Support
Military support remains on standby across the south, according to the COBR statement.While Network Rail is working on a plan to reconnect the rail line to the southwest, two of three rail routes to Exeter, Devon, southwest England, are open, Pickles said. He said additional flights have been scheduled to Newquay on the southwest coast and air fares have been reduced by five pounds.
Prime Minister David Cameron traveled yesterday to affected areas in southwest England, his second such visit in four days. He urged ministers and the Environment Agency to focus on the floods for the moment after Pickles and the agency’s chairman, Chris Smith, traded accusations over the handling of the crisis.
‘Difficult Time’
“This is a time for everyone to get on with the jobs that they have,” Cameron said as he visited Portland in Dorset. “I’m only interested in one thing and that’s making sure everything the government can do is being done and will go on being done to help people through this difficult time.”The city councils of Oxford, on the Thames, and Worcester, on the Severn, warned of road shutdowns, and the National Rail Enquiries website reported disruptions to services across southern and central England, citing inundations and landslides.
“Extreme weather will continue to threaten communities this week,” Environment Agency Chief Executive Officer Paul Leinster said in a statement. Further severe flooding is expected “into Tuesday along the Thames in Berkshire and Surrey. River levels are high across southwest, central and southern England and further rain has the potential to cause significant flooding.”
Transport Disruptions
The agency’s severe flood warnings can indicate that flooding is already taking place and there’s danger to life. The agency also issued 133 flood warnings, signaling flooding is expected, and 215 alerts that floods are possible.“If the accumulation of extreme weather claims extends into February, the insurance industry could be facing a bill of 500 million pounds ($820 million) for the exceptional autumn and winter weather claims, matching the cost of the big freeze in 2010,” James Rakow, an insurance partner at Deloitte LLP in London, said in an e-mail.
The Met Office issued a yellow warning for rain, the third-highest level, across a swathe of southern England for today, predicting more than 30 millimeters (1.2 inches) in parts of the southwest.
Total rainfall for December and January across southeast and central southern England was 372.2 millimeters, the wettest such period since detailed data was first published in 1910, according to the Met Office. The January total for the region was the highest in data stretching to 1766, the office said.
‘Exceptional’ Weather
“Although no individual storm can be regarded as exceptional, the clustering and persistence of the storms is highly unusual,” the Met Office said in a Feb. 7 report. “For England and Wales this was one of -- if not the most -- exceptional periods of winter rainfall in at least 248 years.”A further 600 homes flooded in the past week, according to the Environment Agency, adding to the 7,500 homes nationwide that Environment Secretary Owen Paterson said on Feb. 3 had been affected since the beginning of December.
The agency’s defenses have protected 1.3 million homes in the past 10 weeks, according to Chairman Smith, who hit back yesterday at criticism over his handling of the disaster, saying investment had been hampered by government rules.
“It’s not only the overall allocation for flood-defense work that limits what we can do,” Smith wrote in the Guardian. “There is also a limit on the amount we can contribute to any individual scheme, determined by a benefit-to-cost rule imposed on us by the Treasury.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net
end quote from:
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