CNN reports that as many as 46 severe flood warnings, indicating risk to life, have been issued in England and Wales.
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British engineers are scrambling to restore electricity to thousands of homes in northwestern England after flooding knocked out power supplies across the region.
More than 19,000 Electricity North West customers in the city are still relying on emergency generators which were mobilised on Sunday night as the damage caused by Storm Desmond became clear.
Environment Secretary Elizabeth Truss said that flood defences protected 8600 homes across the north of England and, in thousands of other instances, provided vital time for homes and businesses to be evacuated as well as reducing the impact.
Ms Truss told MPs the government’s emergency Cobra committee would continue to meet daily to oversee the recovery efforts.
Following criticism, the Environment Agency said 45 million ($68 million, 63 million euros) had been spent on the defences in the last decade, and described the rainfall as “beyond the forecasts and beyond the models”.
On Saturday, an elderly man died in London after a gust of wind blew him in front of a bus.
Tributes poured in for the keen Arsenal FC supporter, with the Premier League club tweeting: “Everyone at Arsenal Football Club is saddened to learn of the passing of lifelong fan Ernie Crouch”. The area got a month’s worth of rainfall in a day about 34 centimeters (13.4 inches).
Virgin Trains reopened West Coast Main Line rail services through Cumbria and military engineers have been assisting highways authorities in getting roads back into use.
“Formal identification has not yet taken place”.
According to The Met Office, Honister in Cumbria received 341.4mm of rainfall this weekend, which breaks the 24-hour rain record and many flood warnings and alerts are still in place.
The previous record was 395.6mm (15.6in) over two days in Seathwaite, Cumbria, in November 2009.
“It was horrendous, it just never stopped at all”.
He said the water had reached waist high at points along the road and had flooded local businesses including a auto dealership and a convenience store. The beginning of November was lovely and was like summer, and then it has started.
It’s heartbreaking but you’ve just got to get on with it, haven’t you?
This second set of floods in the same area “will lead insurers to question whether they will provide cover in the affected areas”, said Robert Powell, technical officer for United Kingdom retail at insurance broker Arthur J Gallagher.
The 2014/15 spending came after the Thames Valley and Somerset flooding of 2014 which prompted the PM to say there would be “no penny pinching” and “money would be no object” in dealing with damage.
Power was lost on Monday afternoon at 42,000 properties across Lancaster, Morecambe, Heysham and Carnforth, the company said.
The Prime Minister admitted on Monday that multimillion-pound defences – which were upgraded in 2010 to withstand a “once in 100 years” flood – “weren’t enough on this occasion”.
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Two dead, flooding, power outages: Since Friday the storm “Desmond” rages over Britain’s Northwest.
