Things are grim a few miles north of here. A major water pumping station is out of action (it's flooded, even though it was built away from the usual flood plain), as are a number of electricity substations, so something of the order of 350,000 people are without running water, and around 15,000 have no power. It could take a fortnight to fix the water, although the hopes are it'll be much sooner than that.
As for the rail and road networks...
The floods are expected to peak in the next few hours - there's a delay as the water works its way down from the higher ground. The highest recorded rainfall on Friday was 162 mm (about 6 1/2 inches), although many places received more than 100 mm (4 inches). Some rivers are 20 feet above normal.
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Things are grim a few miles north of here. A major water pumping station is out of action (it's flooded, even though it was built away from the usual flood plain), as are a number of electricity substations, so something of the order of 350,000 people are without running water, and around 15,000 have no power. It could take a fortnight to fix the water, although the hopes are it'll be much sooner than that.
As for the rail and road networks...
The floods are expected to peak in the next few hours - there's a delay as the water works its way down from the higher ground. The highest recorded rainfall on Friday was 162 mm (about 6 1/2 inches), although many places received more than 100 mm (4 inches). Some rivers are 20 feet above normal.
Meanwhile, as one part of the government tries to explain why they need to work out how to be better prepared, another, well: The government has not ruled out more development on flood plains, as it unveils plans for 3m new homes by 2020.
The clue is right there in the name, old chaps. Flood plain. Flood plain.