Cats, dogs, rabbits and even chickens have all been rescued, mainly from residential properties across the north of England, where their owners were forced to flee the rising flood waters.
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A man rides his bike down through flood water in Eldridge Street, Carlisle. Ministers heard that the situation in the aftermath of Storm Desmond was improving but that emergency services remain on “high alert” because of the threat of more heavy rain.
A band of rain forecast overnight will bring the potential for further disruption across Cumbria, as well as parts of Lancashire and North Yorkshire, the EA added.
About 60,000 homes in northern regions were left without power and electricity.
(Andrew Yates/PA)Why are the government saying the floods in Cumbria are unprecedented, it was just as bad in 2009.
Prime Minister David Cameron will chair a meeting of the Cobra national emergency committee later today to coordinate the response to the crisis.
“That’s what’s going to have to happen because we can’t continue to have events like this, we just won’t be able to cope”, he said.
Storm Desmond continued to batter the United Kingdom as a number of fatalities were reported as hundreds of Britons face the prospect of celebrating Christmas away from their homes or trying to fix and dry out their flooded residences.
The Met Office issued its highest tier red warning for rain, with scores of severe flood warnings issued, advising that there was a “danger to life” and that immediate action needed to be taken.
There are a total of 270 flood warnings in place with yellow warnings affecting: Central, Tayside & Fife, SW Scotland, Lothian Borders, Strathclyde, North West England, Northern Ireland and Yorkshire & Humber.
As many as 13,000 homes were still waiting for their power to be put back on across Cumbria and Lancaster.
“Last year, the prime minister promised that “money is no object” in dealing with flooding, itself a outcome of the destruction of our environment”, Corbyn said.
The body of an elderly man was found in the river Kent in the County of Cumbria, in North West England, as police said. The floods have raised questions on why the multi-million-pound flood defences that were upgraded in 2010 to withstand a “once in 100 years” flood, were breached at the weekend.
In Cumbria, an estimated 1,450 properties remain without power, as engineers wait for floodwaters to recede so they can assess the damage and make essential repairs.
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‘These spending plans will protect an additional 300,000 homes…it will reduce the risk and that’s what the Environment Agency’s models will show. “They have abandoned the consensus on flood investment built by the Labour party after the 2007 floods – and are failing the British people due to their obsession with austerity”.
